SOURCE: “Élie Halévy,” in The English Historical Review, Vol. LIII, No. CCIX, January, 1938, pp. 79-87.

In the following essay, Barker recounts Halévy's life and work as a historian and philosopher.

Élie Halévy was born at Etretat on 6 September 1870, two days after the proclamation of the French Republic. (His mother had fled there from Paris before the final advance of the German armies.) His father, Ludovic (1834-1908), the nephew of a famous Jewish composer of operas, was himself a writer of libretti, especially for the music of Offenbach; and indeed music was a tradition in the family. But Ludovic Halévy was a man of many sides. He had inherited from his father St. Simonian traditions: he was a scholar, a bibliophile, and a lover of young talent, who kept open house (in the fine French manner) for good talk and discussion. His wife, a protestant...