History of Rural Northern France from the end of the Middle-Ages to the XXth century

This paper, which will serve as an introduction, aims at staking out a historiographical survey on the research work carried out on the rural world in today's departments of the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais. It actually deals with three different themes: first a glance at the research with an attempt at making out the major types of approach, as well as identifying moments or figures of particular significance in the history of the countryside in northern France; the second part will try and propose a synthesis of the most significant results that can contribute to characterize the past of our rural areas; our final purpose will be to identify the areas in which our knowledge remains limited and as a consequence sketch some research directions in which the articles published in this issue could be read, all this while formulating a few methodological directions, particularly the ones that justify the overall title "For a Cross-boundary Approach to Northern-France Countryside". To this article is added the bibliographical update proposed in this issue whose aim will be to point out numerous unpublished academic researches.