Henry Rousso (born 23 November 1954) is an Egyptian-born French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

specializing in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

France.

Early life

Henry Rousso was born on 23 November 1954 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. Forced out of Egypt under anti-Semitic measures instituted by the Nasser regime, and stripped of Egyptian nationality, they fled to France in 1956. Rousso studied at the

École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

between 1974 and 1979, earning an agrégation in history in 1977. Rousso joined the

National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

(CNRS) in 1981. The previous year, he participated in the foundation of the Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent, which he directed between 1994 and 2005. Rousso taught at the

École normale supérieure de Cachan École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scal ...

and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris. He has supervised PhD dissertations at

Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Paris, France. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, ma ...

from 2001 to 2011, then at Panthon-Sorbonne University from 2011. Rousso currently serves as Director of Research at the CNRS. Rousso is an editorial board member of several

academic journals An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

, including ''Conserveries mémorielles'', ''Vingtième Siècle'', '' History and Memory'', '' South Central Review'', and ''SegleXX. Revista catalana di Stòria.'' He co-directed the collection "Contemporary European History" (

Berghahn Books Berghahn Books is a New York and Oxford-based publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creat ...

: Oxford/New York), along with

Konrad Jarausch Konrad H. Jarausch (born 14 August 1941 in Magdeburg, Germany) is a German-American historian and the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or ...

.'''' On February 22, 2017, Rousso was detained by

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilit ...

(CBP) agentsErin McCann "French Historian Says He Was Threatened with Deportation at Houston Airport
''The New York Times'', February 27, 2017. for 10 hours on arrival at

George Bush Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and nearly deported. He had come to give a talk at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and was detained because he was entering the country on a tourist visa and was being paid a stipend for the talk. The Customs and Border Protection agent was unaware that such stipends are allowed for scholars.

Works

Rousso's notable work includes a seminal book on

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

entitled ''The Vichy Syndrome'' (1987) where he coined a phrase commonly used to describe the era, ''un passé qui ne passe pas'' ("a past that doesn't pass".

References

Living people 1954 births Egyptian emigrants to France Egyptian Jews University of Paris alumni ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni Historians of Vichy France Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite French male writers 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians French people of Egyptian-Jewish descent {{France-historian-stub