Henri Peretz Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
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One final question: How would you advise students to prepare for the future?
I tell them, you have to speak English, you have to be able to connect on the web, you have to be able to drive, and you have to be able to leave your country very fast.
Let me make a second question out of that. I know that you feel that it's not just words that matter, it's also images. You have a photography component to both your life history work and your field research. Tell us a little about that. That is, our ability to prepare for the future by being able to think about the images that we can form, but also that shape our thinking about the world.
I think that the French way is always too abstract. General ideas. So the way I teach and the way I myself work, I want people to see real situations. Real people differentiate themselves. I think the main thing is to see people acting. The new media is marvelous for this. So for example, when I give a class on the history of American cities, I use a lot of photographs. I try to have students comment, which is very difficult. I think it's a new skill that's very important, because they will find jobs being able to manipulate, being able to use images. This is absolutely against the abstract theory. I want them to recognize people, to see that people are different in one way and similar in another way. I think this opposition is the main thing now. We are similar and we are different. I think this is what we are going to experience in the next generation. It's what the new generation is experiencing.
If we can come full circle here, when I'm hearing is that since you are French you can never completely give up abstraction, but you are a rebel against it. Is that fair?
Yes, I is. I was trained as a philosopher and I changed. My advisor was the famous Bourdieu. Smart man, but impossible. And by impossible I mean, he did not understand the changes, he did not understand the details. I think life is made of very meaningful details, and it's the reason I like photography. I think it's a part of the French academic culture.
Well, on that note Henri, thank you very much for being here and sharing this story of your life, letting us do an oral history of you. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.
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