JAURÈS, Jean. - A political and historical figure, born at Castres on 3 Sept. 1859, died in Paris on 31 July 1914. Several times a deputy in Parliament, he is the most typical representative of French socialism at the end of the 19th century and in the years preceding the First World War.
He founded *L'Humanité* in 1904. He was one of the most ardent supporters of the revision of the Dreyfus trial. He left a notable mark on the history of historiography with his *Histoire socialiste de la Révolution française* (3rd ed., Paris 1939), in which he developed the thesis—contrary to Michelet’s interpretation—that the Revolution was not the product of misery but the maturation of the bourgeoisie and thus the political claim of a new wealth. In his work as an orator and historian, J. was anchored to the idea of a “reformist” socialism. He felt more the demands of “ruralism” than those of “labourism,” yet he was unable to resolve the contradictions between the Marxist tradition and positivism, as well as significant Blanquist elements; he almost made a fetish of “the people”; on a religious plane, he was essentially a pantheist and an admirer of the “religion” of nature.