Roger Chartier, born on December 9, 1945 in Lyon, is a French historian and historiographer who is part of the Annales school. He works on the history of books, publishing and reading. He teaches at the Collège de France in Paris and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. This interview was conducted on April 4, 2013 by Sudev J Sheth, a doctoral student South Asia Studies & History at the University of Pennsylvania.

0:07 – Tell us about your early life including your family background and early education. How did you become a historian?

4:07 – How do you trace your own intellectual genealogy? In what ways is your work in sync with this genealogy and in what ways does it depart from it?

9:57 – What is the relationship between a historian and the society from which they emerge, comment upon, and are a part of?

15:06 – Which seven books or authors have contributed most to your understanding of history and scholarly practice?

30:30 – Comment and Questions from Anthony Grafton, Professor of History at Princeton University

42:00 – Comment and Questions from Peter Stallybrass, Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania

57:10 – What impact do you hope your work will have? What has been your legacy so far as a scholar and intellectual? How do you want history to remember you?