Pierre Léon (24 November 1914 - 12 October 1976) was a French historian.
Born in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, he became an innovator in economic history, publishing his thesis La Naissance de la grande industrie en Dauphiné (fin du XVIIe siecle-1869) (The birth of major industry in the Dauphiné (end of the 17th century - 1869)) in 1954, the first major economical study of that region.
[1] He became professor at the University of Lyon, where he founded the Centre d'histoire économique et sociale de la région lyonnaise (later renamed after him) and encouraged it for several years before moving to the Sorbonne.
A student of Marc Bloch then Ernest Labrousse, he contributed to several collective works, particularly the treatise Histoire économique et sociale de la France (Braudel-Labrousse), Presses universitaires de France, 1970-1982 (later republications) as well as instigating and heading the six-volume Histoire économique et sociale du monde (Armand Colin, 1970–1978).
In 1968 he also set up the Bulletin du Centre d'histoire économique et sociale de la région lyonnaise, later renamed the Bulletin du Centre Pierre Léon and now known as the Cahiers du Centre Pierre Léon d'histoire économique et sociale[2] He died at Saint-Mandé.