René Grousset (; 5 September 1885 – 12 September 1952) 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 species; as well as the ...

who was curator of both the Cernuschi Museum and the Guimet Museum in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and a member of the prestigious

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. He wrote several major works on Asiatic and Oriental civilizations, with his two most important works being ''Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem'' (1934–1936) and '' The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia'' (1939), both of which were considered standard references on the subject.

Biography

Grousset was born in Aubais,

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;University of Montpellier with a degree in history, he soon began his distinguished career soon. He served in the French Army during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1925, Grousset was appointed adjunct conservator of the Musée Guimet in

and secretary of the '' Journal asiatique''. By 1930, he had published five major works on Asiatic and Oriental civilizations. In 1933, he was appointed director of the Cernuschi Museum in Paris and curator of its Asiatic art collections. He wrote a major work on the Chinese Buddhist medieval pilgrim

Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...

, particularly emphasising the importance of his visit to the northern Indian Buddhist university of Nalanda. At the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Grousset had published his two most important works, ''Histoire des Croisades ''(1934-1936) and '' L'Empire des Steppes'' (1939). Dismissed from his museum posts by the

Vichy government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

, he continued his research privately and published three volumes on

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

during the war. After the liberation of France, he resumed his curatorship of the Cernuschi Museum and was also appointed curator of the Guimet Museum. In 1946, Grousset was made a member of the French Academy. Between 1946 and 1949, he published four final works, concentrating on Asia Minor and the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

. In 1952, Grousset died at the age of 67 in Paris.

Judgments

The British historian Christopher Tyerman points out that upon publication, Grousset's ''History of the Crusades'' came under criticism, on the one hand for not analyzing the political system of what Grousset considered to be a French state in the Levant and on the other hand for exaggerating or misrepresenting the cultural sympathy between overseas communities. The American historians Frederic Duncalf and John Life La Monte were particularly severe. In 1981, the German historian Hans Eberhard Mayer estimated that Grousset's "History of the Crusades" was, among the general works on this subject, "the one in which chauvinism in crusade research raised its ugly head for a last time". More recently, Grousset's successors have noted that his outlook was shaped by his ideas about France's colonial role. In 2001, :fr:Joël Gourdon wrote: "René Grousset produced a work entirely dedicated to France's colonial role. He sees in the colonial adventure the admirable synthesis of the most sacred values for him: Christianity, the fatherland and the State, even republican. He projects this ideal into the Middle Ages and sees in the Crusades the first expression of this 'civilizing mission' which is that of eternal France." In 2007, the French medieval historian Pierre Aubé expressed himself on Grousset in the following manner: "This historian, who knew how to rely on the best of the greatest orientalists of his time, whose erudition is of a rare solidity when it comes to establishing facts, is very oriented when it comes to interpreting them. His angle of vision is very marked by the colonialist utopia that prevailed in the 1920s and 1930s when he built his ''opus magnum''." For :fr:Vadime Elisseeff, who succeeded him as director of the Cernuschi Museum, Grousset is "the last of the great classics, those for whom the “sense of history” was more a matter of psychology of beings than of the material conditions of existence, whose physical and moral impact on the lives of individuals had not yet been emphasized by the sciences. His works are valuable by the intelligence of the views and by facts presented in a clear and easily readable style.Vadime Elisseeff, art. René Grousset in Encyclopædia Universalis
online

Works

* 1922 –

4 vol., Paris: G. Crès & cie.
OCLC 4594662
* 1923 – * 1924 – * 1926 – * 1928 – * 1929 – * 1929 – * ''In the Footsteps of the Buddha''. JA Underwood (trans) Orion Press. New York (1971) * 1929–1930 – , 4 vol. * 1931 – * 1934–1936 –

3 vol. Paris: Plon. * 1936 – * 1937 – (with H. Demoulin-Bernard) * 1939 – * 1939 –

Paris: Editions Payot
OCLC 220712631
* '' The Empire of the Steppes''

(tr., Naomi Walford). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. (1970) ; . * 1941 – * 1941 – (with J. Auboyer et J. Buhot) * 1942 – * 1944 – * 1945 – (with C. DIehl, R. Guilland et L. Oeconomos) * 1946 – * 1946 – * 1947 –

Paris: Payot. * 1948 – * 1949 – * 1950 – (collective work) * 1950 – (with J. Auboyer) * 1951 –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grousset, Rene 1885 births 1952 deaths People from Gard Members of the Académie Française Turkologists Historians of Central Asia Historians of the Crusades French sinologists French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French historians 20th-century French male writers

Biography

Judgments

Works

See also

References