JAURÈS, JEAN. – Politician and historian, born in Castres on 3 September 1859, died in Paris on 31 July 1914. Several times a member of Parliament, he is the most representative figure of French socialism at the end of the century and in the years preceding the First World War.
He founded 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, against Michelet’s interpretation, that the revolution was not the product of misery, but the maturation of the bourgeoisie and therefore the political vindication of a new wealth. In his work as an orator and historian, J. remains anchored to the idea of “reformist” socialism. He feels the demands of “ruralism” more strongly than those of “workerism,” but in any case he is unable to resolve the aporias arising from the coexistence of the Marxist tradition and positivism, as well as of substantial Blanquist elements; he creates almost a fetish of the “people”; on the religious plane, he is essentially a pantheist and an admirer of the “religion” of nature.