René Rémond (; 30 September 1918 – 14 April 2007) was a 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 ...
,
political scientist
Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...
and political economist.
Born in
Lons-le-Saunier
Lons-le-Saunier () is a Communes of France, commune and capital of the Jura (department), Jura Department, eastern France.
Geography
The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the first plateau of the Jura massif. The Jur ...
, Rémond was the Secretary General of Jeunesses étudiantes Catholiques (JEC France in 1943) and a member of the International YCS Center of Documentation and Information in Paris (presently the International Secretariat of International Young Catholic Students). The author of books on French political, intellectual and religious history, he was elected to the
Académie Française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
in 1998. He was also a founding member of the
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences ( la, Pontificia Academia Scientiarum Socialium, or PASS) is a pontifical academy established on 1 January 1994 by Pope John Paul II and is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in Vatican City. It operate ...
.
Rémond is the originator of the famous division of French right-wing parties and movement into three different currents, each one of which appeared during a specific phase of French history:
Legitimism
The Legitimists (french: Légitimistes) are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They r ...
(
counter-revolution
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
aries),
Orléanism, and
Bonapartism
Bonapartism (french: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In thi ...
.
Boulangisme
Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...
, for example, was according to him a type of Bonapartism, as was
Gaullism
Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withd ...
. These he considers as being authoritarian, needing a leader with charisma, and presenting their movements as more "populist" than the others. Legitimism refers to the
royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
s who refused to accept the
French Republic
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
during the 19th century. (The ''
Action Française
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 f ...
'' royalist movement belongs to the Legitimists, who, being marginalized during the 20th century, managed however to take back some influence during the
Vichy régime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the Fascism, fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of ...
.) Similarly, he classes the
National Front (
Le Pen's party) in this group. Orléanists he identifies as
economic liberals
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalis ...
, which characterizes present-day conservative parties. This group presents itself as bourgeois rather than populist.
Rémond died in April 2007 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
at the age of 88.
René Rémond, 88, French Historian
/ref>
Bibliography
* ''Lamennais et la démocratie'' (1948)
* ''La Droite en France de 1815 à nos jours'' (1954)
* ''Histoire des États-Unis'' (1959)
* ''Les Catholiques, le communisme et les crises (1929–1939)'' (1960)
* ''Les États-Unis devant l’opinion française (1815–1852), 2 volumes'' (1962)
* ''Les Deux Congrès ecclésiastiques de Reims et Bourges (1896–1900)'' (1964)
* ''La Vie politique en France, tome 1 : 1789-1848'' (1964)
* ''Forces religieuses et attitudes politiques dans la France depuis 1945'' (contributing editor; 1965)
* ''Atlas historique de la France contemporaine'' (contributing editor; 1966)
* ''Léon Blum, chef de gouvernement'' (contributing editor; 1967)
* ''La droite en France, De la Première Restauration à la Ve République, 2 volumes'' (1968)
* ''La Vie politique en France, tome 2 : 1848-1879'' (1969)
* ''Le Gouvernement de Vichy et la Révolution nationale'' (contributing editor; 1972)
* ''Introduction à l’histoire de notre temps, 3 volumes'' (1974)
* ''L’Anticléricalisme en France de 1815 à nos jours'' (1976)
* ''Vivre notre histoire (Entretien avec Aimé Savard)'' (1976)
* ''Édouard Daladier, chef de gouvernement'' (1977)
* ''La France et les Français en 1938-1939'' (1978)
* ''La Règle et le consentement. Gouverner une société'' (1979)
* ''Les droites en France'' (1982, published in 2005)
* ''Quarante ans de cabinets ministériels'' (contributing editor, 1982)
* ''Le Retour de de Gaulle'' (1983)
* ''Essais d’ego-histoire'' (in collaboration; 1987)
* ''Pour une histoire politique'' (contributing editor; 1988)
* ''Notre siècle (1918–1988), rééditions mises à jour, 1992 et 1995'' (1988)
* ''Age et politique'' (in collaboration; 1991)
* ''Paul Touvier et l’Église'' (in collaboration; 1992)
* ''Valeurs et politique'' (1992)
* ''Histoire de la France religieuse'' (co-contributing editor; 1992)
* ''La politique n’est plus ce qu’elle était'' (1993)
* ''Le Catholicisme français et la société politique'' (1995)
* ''Le Fichier juif'' (in collaboration; 1996)
* ''Les Crises du catholicisme en France dans les années trente'' (1996)
* ''Religion et société en Europe aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Essai sur la sécularisation'' (1998)
* ''Une laïcité pour tous'' (1998)
* ''L'Anticléricalisme en France'' (1999)
* ''Les Grandes Inventions du christianisme'' (1999)
* ''La politique est-elle intelligible ?'' (1999)
* ''Le Christianisme en accusation'' (2000)
* ''Discours de réception à l'Académie française'' (2000)
* ''Regard sur le siècle'' (2000)
* ''Du mur de Berlin aux tours de New York : douze années pour changer de siècle'' (in collaboration with François Azouvi) (2002)
* ''La République souveraine'' (2002)
* ''Une mémoire française'' (2002)
* ''Le Siècle dernier'' (2003)
* ''Le nouvel anti-christianisme'' (2005)
* ''Les Droites aujourd'hui'' (2005)
References
External links
Intervention
Colloque L’Europe en quête de son identité culturelle. Décembre 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Remond, Rene
1918 births
2007 deaths
People from Lons-le-Saunier
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Sciences Po faculty
Historians of France
Historians of Vichy France
Lycée Carnot alumni
Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni
Members of the Académie Française
Members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Commanders of the Order of Agricultural Merit
Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
French male writers
20th-century French historians