Élisabeth du Réau, née de Chateauvieux (6 February 1937 – 6 February 2021), was a French historian and professor of international relations and contemporary history, known for her biography of French Prime Minister

Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II. Daladier was born in Carpe ...

and her work on the construction of the European identity. She had a twenty-year career as a high school history instructor before embarking on an academic career spanning over thirty years.

Biography

Childhood and education

Born Élisabeth de Chateauvieux in 1937, she began her university studies in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

in 1956, then continued at the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...

. She completed her bachelor's degree in history in Paris, at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, in 1961. Marriage and children then interrupted her studies until 1965. She was awarded a master's with highest honors (''mention très bien'') in 1968, then passed the competitive agrégation exam in history-geography in 1969. She earned her doctorate in contemporary history from the

University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1987, again with highest honors (''mention très honorable''). Her dissertation, an eight-volume study of

called “Edouard Daladier et la sécurité de la France 1933-1940”, was supervised by

Jean-Baptiste Duroselle Jean-Baptiste Duroselle (17 November 1917, Paris – 12 September 1994, Arradon) was a French historian and professor. He had initially considered an army career or study of geography, but his poor skills in mathematics and drawing led him to turn ...

. In 1993 she published a condensed version as a biography of Daladier, ''Édouard Daladier, 1884-1970''.Reviews of ''Édouard Daladier, 1884-1970'': Serge Berstein (1994), ''Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine'', ; Jean-Marie d'Hoop (1993), ''Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains'', ; Jocelyne George (1995), ''Revue Historique'', ; Stefan Martens (1995), ''Historische Zeitschrift'', ; Kenneth Mouré (1994), ''French Politics and Society'', ; Robert W. Mühle (1994), ''Francia'', ; Donald Cameron Watt (1995), ''The Journal of Modern History'', ; Robert J. Young (1994), ''The American Historical Review'', , This, as well as her 1996 book, ''Histoire de l’idée européenne au XX^e siècle (''), became the works for which she is best known.

Career

Beginning in 1960, Du Réau taught in private schools for 10 years. From 1970 until 1979 Du Réau taught high school business and history in

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. ...

and then at

Lycée Janson-de-Sailly Lycée Janson de Sailly is a ''lycée'' located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The ''lycéens'' of Janson are called ''les jansoniens'' and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic inst ...

in Paris. She was appointed as a lecturer in contemporary history at Le Mans University in 1980 and promoted to professor in 1989. She moved to the

University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 The New Sorbonne University (french: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, also known as Paris III) is a public university in Paris, France. It is one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was completely overhauled and rest ...

in 1993. She held a

Jean Monnet Chair The Jean Monnet Programme, also known as the Jean Monnet Project or Jean Monnet Actions, is a European Union initiative to encourage teaching, research and reflection in the field of European integration studies in higher education institutions. I ...

from 1998 until 2004. Her work initially focused on the history of French foreign policy, but came to include the history of European integration, making new contributions on the subjects of the interwar period, debates among intellectuals, and European security after World War II. She led several doctoral programmes and research projects. One was a programme of collaboration between French, central and eastern European universities considering both academic and administrative development. Du Réau became vice-president of the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 from 1993 until 2005. She was vice-president of the Institute for the History of Contemporary International Relations and president of the ''Association des historiens contemporanéistes de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche'' from 1997 to 2006. Du Réau took emerita status in 2005 but continued to lead doctoral seminars and supervise dissertations, overseeing more than a dozen in her retirement. In total, she directed 29 doctoral dissertations and presided the jury review of 8 doctoral dissertations in her career.Élisabeth du Réau died on 6 February 2021, the day of her 84th birthday.

Publications

Du Réau was the author of several books including: *''Édouard Daladier, 1884-1970'' (1993) *''L'idée d'Europe au XX^e siècle, des mythes aux réalités'' (1996) *''L'ordre mondial, de Versailles à San Francisco, juin 1919-juin 1945'' (2007) *''La construction européenne au XX^e siècle: fondements, enjeux, défis'' (2007) She also edited or co-edited several

edited volume An edited volume or edited collection is a collection of scholarly or scientific chapters written by different authors. The chapters in an edited volume are original works (not republished works). Alternative terms for edited volume are ''contrib ...

s, including: *''Europe des élites? Europe des peuples? La construction de l'espace européen (1945-1960)'' (1997) *''Dynamiques européennes. Nouvel espace, nouveaux acteurs: 1969-1981'' (with , 2003) *''Dynamiques et résistances politiques dans le nouvel espace européen'' (with Christine Manigand, 2005) *''Vers la réunification de l’Europe, Apports et limites du processus d'’Helsinki de 1975 à nos jours'' (with Christine Manigand, 2005) *''Les débats autour de la constitution pour l'Europe, enjeux et perspectives 2005-2008'' (with Alain Laquièze, 2007) *''Maréchal Jean de Lattre - Ne Pas Subir, Écrits 1914-1952'' (with André Kaspi, Marc Michel, Guy Pedroncini, 1984)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Réau, Élisabeth 1937 births 2021 deaths French women historians University of Paris alumni 20th-century French historians 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French historians 21st-century French women writers Academic staff of the University of Paris