François Marie-Joseph Crouzet was born on 20 October, 1922, in Monts-sur-Guesnes (in the Vienne département). He completed his studies at the Ecole normale supérieure, the Faculté de Lettres de Paris and at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The early years of his career were spent as assistant d'histoire at the Faculté des Lettres de Paris (1949-1953), before taking the post of Professor of Contemporary History at the Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux (1956-1958). He also taught at the Faculté des Lettres de Lille (1958-1964), and de Nanterre (1964-1969) before becoming Professor of Northern European History at the Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne (1969-1992). An Emeritus Professor from 1992, he also directed the Centre Roland Mousnier, attached to the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), between 1982 and 1990. He was a corresponding fellow at the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium and the Academie Europea. He was made knight of the order of the Légion d'honneur, as well as an honourary CBE (Honourary Commander of the British Empire). He served as a member of the jury for the Fondation Napoléon's History Prizes and Study Grants. Professor Crouzet passed away on 20 March, 2010, at the age of eighty-seven.
Selected bibliography:
(in French)
– L'économie britannique et le blocus continental 1806-1813, PUF, 1ère éd. 1958, Economica, 2e édition 1988
– Le conflit de Chypre 1946-1959, Bruylant, Bruxelles, 1973
– De la supériorité de l'Angleterre sur la France. L'économique et l'imaginaire XVII-XXe s., Perrin, 1985, rééd. 1999
– La grande inflation : la monnaie en France de Louis XVI à Napoléon, 1993
– Histoire de l'économie européenne, 1000-2000, Bibliothèque Albin Michel – Histoire, 2000 (prix Georges Pompidou, 2001)
– La guerre économique franco-anglaise au XVIIIe siècle, Fayard, 2008 (Médaille de l'académie de marine, 2009)
– L'économie de la Grande-Bretagne victorienne, Belin, rééd. 2009.
(in English)
– Capital formation in the Industrial Revolution, 1972
– The first Industrialists, 1985
– Britain and France in International Trade, 1996