The Return of Martin Guerre (1983)

When I was doing my Research MA in history at Leiden (2010-2012), the type of history that I was trying to write brought my supervisors to recommend Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929-, French), Carlo Ginzburg (1939-, Italian) and Natalie Zemon Davis (1928-, American/Canadian Jew) to me.

History people would probably spot why now. 

Le Roy Ladurie wrote a fantastic book about a rural village called Montaillou in the early fourteenth century (1973); Ginzburg's book on the religious beliefs and world views of a miller Menocchio from the sixteenth century is equally inspiring (1976); and Davis's Martin Guerre from another village Artigat in Southern France of the early sixteenth century remains a popular read ever since its publication (1983). 

What their craftsmanship commonly celebrates is the possibility for a historian to, in Davis's words, "recreate...reinvigorate...and give back...name" ("Being Speculative is better than not to do it at all", 2015) to the people or individuals who are often otherwise passed by, if not silenced, in the history of mankind. They have worked on Europeans to show that; perhaps, as my supervisors thought, it would be nice for the novice, me, to attempt the same for indigenous peoples. 

Plotwise, The Return of Martin Guerre is not very complicated, though indeed dramatic. To be straightforward by year: 

1525 Martin was born, first child and only son. 

1538 Martin married Bertrande.

1547-1548 The couple had a baby boy. 

1548 Martin stole some grain and left the family. 

1556 A "New Martin" showed up at Artigat. 

1559-1560 Suspicion grew and New Martin was imprisoned. 

1560 Trials began at Rieux and Toulouse. The Real Martin Guerre returned and the New Martin, who was by identity truly Arnaud Guilhem du Tilh, was found guilty and executed. 

It is almost Face/Off from four hundred years ago, although the trick, according to Davis, was probably the lack of portrait and mirror, so that the identity of a person could be stolen by a cunning con. 

But there is more to the plot itself for a historian. If I intend to live to the wishes of my supervisors, it will be necessary that I also notice the author's source materials, questions, analytical tools and narrative skills.

Particularly with the source materials, good historians do not settle for the secondary but always attempt the primary, which requires a lot of time and pre-training. Language is only part of the deal. It is not uncommon that a historian can read (or even speak) three or four languages. In the case of Martin Guerre, old French is indispensable. 

Since sources materials are often not written by the intended subject, the historian then needs learn to read between the lines, read against the grain and beat around the bushes in order to answer the questions they have and work the story they intend. In the case of Martin Guerre, Davis attempts to recreate the state of minds of her central peasant characters, their aspirations, feelings and behaviors. For this to work out, a historian will need more than sources.

Historians are the keepers of the memory of mankind. That is a line from the Germany-born British historian G. R. Elton, if my memory serves me correct. Without historians like Davis with her earnest efforts to write for the unwritten, I am sure that our memory of human history will be too monotone to be true.  Coming from a background of the relatively unknown,

I think to make this memory as inclusive as possible is why these historians were introduced to me in the first place.