Sociologul și istoricii. Henri H. Stahl despre istoriografia română.

The article focuses on a case-study of a scientific dialogue (or lack of it) between the Marxist sociologist Henri H. Stahl and Romanian historians. The first section of the study, A failed dialogue, examines the various rhetorical strategies used by Henri H. Stahl when addressing an audience of historians. Stahl’s increasingly irritated tone, triggered by what he perceived to be his marginalization by professional historians, seems only partially justified. The reception of Stahl’s studies of historical sociology was heterogeneous, but despite some positive reviews his contributions remained rather overlooked in the field of historiography. The second section of the article, The taxonomy of Romanian historiography, looks at the historians through the lenses of Stahl’s scientific references and late life interviews. Apart from Iorga, to whom Stahl was emotionally and intellectually attached, the sociologist classified Romanian historians in four categories: (1) respected, but out dated; (2) meticulous, but rather thick; (3) pseudo-socialising and dangerous; (4) useful and trans-disciplinary. In the end, Stahl’s growing frustration with Romanian historiography seems to be best explained by his failure to initiate a methodological revolution in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]