Abstract
Discusses the French historian Lucien Febvre, best known as cofounder of the 'Annales' school. Febvre, whose attitude toward history shifted as a result of the growing political tension in Europe in the 1930's believed that the responsibility of the historian was a continual critical questioning of the past and not the mere analysis of political facts. This is the reason for his relentless persecution of Charles Seignobos who, he felt, did not meet the needs of the time, and Febvre's attraction to the Marxist intellectuals of the Friends of the New Russia. These two influences on Febvre's philosophy of history are seen in the light of the wave of fascist violence in Europe. The ideological undercurrent of irrational antimodernism incited Febvre to "fight" for history.