Alphonse Toussenel (March 17, 1803 – April 30, 1885) was a French naturalist, writer and journalist born in

Montreuil-Bellay Montreuil-Bellay () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. It is located approximately 15 km to the south of Saumur, and is famous for the Château de Montreuil-Bellay, which is situated in the town. Montreuil-Bell ...

, a small meadows commune of

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 prov ...

; he died in Paris on April 30, 1885. A

utopian socialist Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

and a disciple of

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...

, he was anglophobic and

anti-semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. He was at one time editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''La Paix'', and his studies of natural history served as a vehicle for his political ideas. He was also the brother of teacher and translator Théodore Toussenel. An avowed antisemite, Toussenel's ''Les juifs rois de l'époque, histoire de la féodalité financière'' (1845) argued that French finance and commerce was controlled by an "alien" Jewish presence, typified in the influence of the "

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...

railroad". In this, he drew upon a tradition of French socialist antisemitism (as seen in the earlier work of his inspiration Fourier, and

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...

).Rubenstein and Roth (1987). ''Approaches to Auschwitz'', p. 71

Works

*''Les Juifs, rois de l'époque : histoire de la féodalité financière'' (1847) *''L'Esprit des bêtes. Vénerie française et zoologie passionnelle'' (1847) *''Travail et fainéantise, programme démocratique'' (1849) *''L'Esprit des bêtes. Le monde des oiseaux, ornithologie passionnelle'' (1853–55) *''Tristia, histoire des misères et des fléaux de la chasse de France'' (1863)

References

External links

A translation of the chapter on the mole-rat from Toussenel's ''L'Esprit des bêtes''AntiQBook Entry
1803 births 1885 deaths People from Maine-et-Loire Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Fourierists French male writers Antisemitism in France {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub