For a History of the Société de Démographie Historique

In France, the study of the demography of the past has grown significantly since 1950 due to economic historians who have traced price series and wanted to understand subsistence crises and mortality and fertility changes. Interdisciplinary research involved the cooperation of historians and demographers with archivists and genealogists. Historical demography evolved with technological changes while remaining under the responsibility of researchers and scholars, enthusiastic men and women volunteers. This article presents the origins of the French school of historical demography, embedded in the international context, as well as the debt the discipline owes to those who actively participated in its development. The Societe de Demographie Historique, created in 1963, was a non-profit organization that federated these efforts, thanks to active members and chairs. Independent of state administration, it grew rapidly and played a leading role, serving as a platform for meetings and interdisciplinary debates and publications, including international bibliographies. This institution, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, is today dealing with globalization in a discerning way, maintaining its spirit of academic cooperation and innovation, even though English has become the major language of international communication.