Josep Fontana
Encyclopedia
Education
He received his master's degreeMaster's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in philosophy and letters (section history) at the University of Barcelona
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, LERU, European University Association, Mediterranean Universities Union, International Research Universities Network and Vives Network...
in 1956 and his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in history by the same university in 1970. He was a student of Jaume Vicens i Vives
Jaume Vicens i Vives
Jaume Vicens Vives was a Spanish historian, and is considered, along with Pierre Vilar, one of top influential Catalan historians of 20th century....
and Ferran Soldevila. Their main currents of investigation are economic history
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
, 19th century Spanish history
History of Spain
The history of Spain involves all the other peoples and nations within the Iberian peninsula formerly known as Hispania, and includes still today the nations of Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain...
and the history of property. He has been influenced in his thought by E.P. Thompson, Pierre Vilar
Pierre Vilar
Pierre Vilar was a French historian specialized in the history of Catalonia and hispanism. He is considered one of the most authoritative 20th century historians for the history of Spain, for both the Ancien Régime and modern history...
, Gramsci and Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
.
Career
The Jaume Vicens i Vives University Institute of History, the interdisciplinary Ph.D. history institute in the Pompeu Fabra UniversityPompeu Fabra University
Pompeu Fabra University is a university in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is widely considered to be one of the best universities in Spain and in Europe, and was ranked 1st in scientific productivity in Spain in 2009. Founded in 1990, it is named after the Catalan philologist Pompeu Fabra...
in Barcelona was originally directed and founded by Dr. Fontana, in which he continues to teach classes of Introduction to History and 20th century Spanish history. He has taught economic, the interplay between history, law and economics and contemporary history at the University of Barcelona
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, LERU, European University Association, Mediterranean Universities Union, International Research Universities Network and Vives Network...
, the University of Valencia and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona
Autonomous University of Barcelona
The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain....
.
Dr. Fontana has been an active contributor to scholarly history publications since 1970, among them, l'Avenç (1976). The Introduction to History course taught during the first cycle of the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
track of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra is based on Fontana's book Introduction to the Study of History.
Publications
- The bankruptcy of the absolute monarchy (1814–1820) (1971, Ariel, 1987 and Critica, 2002)
- The crisis of the Old Regime (Critica, 1992)
- History: social project and analysis the past (Critical, 1993)
- History after the aim of history (Critica, 1992)
- Europe before the mirror (Critical, 1994 and 2000)
- To teach history with a civil war of by means (Critica, 1999)
- Història dels homes (Critical, 2000) Castilian version in the history of the men (Critica, 2001)
- Introducció to l'estudi of història (Critica, 1999) version in Castilian Introduction to the study of history (Critica, 1999)
- Aturar temps (Critica, 2005)
- Of in the middle of the time (Critica, 2006)