The ego-history in perspective: reflections on nature of an historiographical ambitious project

We celebrate this year the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of the Essais d'ego-histoire in 1987, written and brought together by Pierre Nora. This anniversary, with the recent publication of an unpublished autobiographical essay by Georges Duby, allow us to ponder in depth the nature of the concept of "ego-histoire", its eventual presence in the current historiographical panorama, and its specific repercussions on French historiography. This article describes the epistemic, theoretical, and historiographical nature of the ego-histoire, analyses its immediate precedents, emphasises its historiographical "moment" during the 1980s ("a new genre for a new age of the historical conscience"), and considers its effects, continuities, and heritage.