Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol

Who was Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol?

Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol was a Romanian scholar, economist, philosopher, historian, professor, sociologist, and author. Among his many major accomplishments, he is credited with being the Romanian historian credited with authoring the first major synthesis of the history of the Romanian people.

Born in Iaşi, where he graduated from high school, he went on to Vienna in 1870 to study law and then to Berlin, where he studied philosophy. In 1868, he made his debut in Convorbiri Literare with a series of studies on Romanian traditions and on Romanian institutions.

At first, Xenopol served as a prosecutor in Iaşi, but he later decided to dedicate himself to the study of history. Starting in 1883, he was a professor of universal history at the University of Iaşi. He was named a member of the Romanian Academy in 1895.

In his 1899 French-language Les Principes fondamentaux de l'histoire, his work most well-known internationally, he argued for history being a true science which follows clearly defined laws and logic, through which the reasons for historical processes could be clearly defined.