Bertrand de Jouvenel

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Bertrand de Jouvenel (October 31, 1903, Paris -- March 1, 1987, Paris) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist.

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[edit] Life

Bertrand was the son of Henri de Jouvenel and Sarah Boas, the daughter of a Jewish industrialist. Henri divorced Sarah in 1912 to become the second husband of French writer Colette. In 1919, when he was a mere 16, Bertrand began an affair with his stepmother, who was then in her late 40s. The affair ended Colette's marriage and caused a scandal. It lasted until 1924. Bertrand is the role model for the title character in Colette's novel Chéri. In the 1930s, he participated to the Cahiers Bleus, the review of Georges Valois' Republican Syndicalist Party.

From 1930 to 1934, De Jouvenel had an affair with the American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. They would have married had his wife agreed to a divorce.

Jouvenel's mother passionately supported Czechoslovakian independence, and so he began his career as a private secretary to Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovakia's first prime minister. In 1947, along with Friedrich Hayek, Jacques Rueff, and Milton Friedman, he founded the Mont Pelerin Society. Later in life, de Jouvenel established the Futuribles International in Paris.

Jouvenel was among the very few French intellectuals to pay respectful attention to the economic theory and welfare economics that emerged during the first half of the 20th century in Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This understanding of economics is shown by his The Ethics of Redistribution.

[edit] The Sternhell Controversy

Zeev Sternhell published a book, Ni Droite, ni gauche ("Neither Right nor Left"), accusing De Jouvenel of having had fascist sympathies in the 1930s and 40s. De Jouvenel sued in 1983, claiming nine counts of libel, two of which the court upheld. However, Sternhell was required neither to publish a retraction, nor to strike any passages from future printings of his book.[1]

[edit] Notes

  • ^  Robert Wohl, 1991, "French Fascism, Both Right and Left: Reflections on the Sternhell Controversy," The Journal of Modern History 63: 91-98.

[edit] Some books by De Jouvenel

  • On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth
  • The Ethics of Redistribution
  • Sovereignty: An Inquiry into the Political Good
  • The Pure Theory of Politics
  • The Art of Conjecture

[edit] About De Jouvenel