 emmanuel le roy ladurie (born 19 july 1929) is a french historian whose work is mainly focused upon languedoc in the ancien regime, particularly the history of the peasantry. ==early life and career== le roy ladurie was born in les moutiers-en-cinglais, calvados, the son of jacques le roy ladurie, minister of agriculture for marshal philippe pÃ©tain and subsequently a resistant. the historian was educated in caen at the collÃ¨ge saint-joseph, in paris at the lycÃ©e henri-iv and in sceaux at the lycÃ©e lakanal. he was awarded an agrÃ©gation in history after studying at the Ãcole normale supÃ©rieure and a doctorat Ã¨s lettres from the university of paris. le roy ladurie has taught at the lycÃ©e de montpellier, the university of montpellier, the Ãcole pratique des haute Ãtudes in paris, the university of paris and at the collÃ¨ge de france, where he occupied from 1973 to 1999 the chair of history of modern civilization and is now emeritus professor. le roy ladurie was a member of the french communist party (pcf) between 1945 and 1963. he left the party after doubts caused by the 1956 hungarian revolution became too much for him. he has since then analysed his political engagement and communism in ouverture, sociÃ©tÃ©, pouvoir: de lâÃdit de nantes Ã  la chute du communisme (2004) and les grands procÃ¨s politiques, ou la pÃ©dagogie infernale (2002). le roy ladurie often writes for le nouvel observateur, l'express, and le monde newspapers and appears on french television. ==les paysans de languedoc== le roy ladurie first attracted attention with his doctoral thesis, les paysans de languedoc, which was published as a book in 1966 and translated into english as the peasants of languedoc in 1974. in this study of the peasantry of languedoc over several centuries, le roy ladurie employed a huge range of quantitative information, such as tithe, wage, tax, rent and profit records, together with the use of the theories of such thinkers as ernest labrousse, michel foucault, david ricardo, fernand braudel, claude lÃ©vi-strauss, thomas malthus, franÃ§ois simiand, sigmund freud, and max weber, to contend that the history of languedoc was "l'histoire immobile." he argued that the history of 
1929_births CollA"ge_de_France_faculty Environmental_historians French_Communist_Party_members French_historians Historiographers Living_people LycA(c)e_Henri-IV_alumni LycA(c)e_Lakanal_alumni Members_of_the_AcadA(c)mie_des_sciences_morales_et_politiques Microhistorians People_from_Calvados_(department) Acole_Normale_SupA(c)rieure_alumni