The French historian Jacques Le Goff, who has died at the age of 90, specialised in the middle ages, which he defined taking the long view as stretching from the 5th to the 18th centuries. His case was that the period had a character of its own, and should not be seen as paving the way to modern times: it was during the medieval era, he argued, that Christianity, modern languages, towns, universities and the idea of Europe all emerged. He also acknowledged the cruelties and injustices of the period.
Le Goff's historiographical approach was based on that used by Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel in the influential journal Annales, emphasising long-term social history, ideas, and the conditions of ordinary people, rather than more traditional political or military themes.
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