Abstract
Edelstein discusses the perceived contradiction between history and structuralism that a historian played a decisive role in the shaping of a key structuralist theory, namely, the structural analysis of myth, one of the longest lasting (and earliest) contributions of structuralism. He also examines the role of Jules Michelet in both Claude Levi-Strauss's and Roland Barthes's definitions of myth, as well as of history, and by demystifying the "linguistic" account of structuralism's theoretical developments and the intellectual and political context from which it emerged.