Jacques Bainville

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Jacques Bainville (February 9, 1879 in Vincennes, Val-de-Marne - February 9, 1936 in Paris) was a French historian and journalist. A staunch monarchist, he was a leading figure in Action Française.

Political career

Bainville first came to prominence as an activist against Alfred Dreyfus.[1]

A follower of Charles Maurras, Bainville was a founder of Action Française and soon became an important figure in the Institut d'Action Française, a college of sorts ran by the organisation (it had no permanent buildings but ran lectures and study groups where possible).[2]

Bainville became notorious in French political circles for his Germanophobia and this was one of the defining strands of his writing.[3] His early works suggested that the history of Europe was defined by the struggle between the superior French civilisation and the barbaric German kultur.[4] His Histoire de deux peuples (1915) underlined the importance for France of German weakness and sought a return to the pre-Franco-Prussian War status of Germany.[5] His Les Conséquences politiques de la paix (Political Consequences of Peace, 1920), whilst intended as an answer to John Maynard Keynes' views on Treaty of Versailles, was actually translated into German in Nazi Germany and presented as evidence that France had a mission for German destruction.[6] His other written works included Histoire de France, as well as political columns for a number of newspapers and editing La Revue Universelle for Maurras.[7] He was however an admirer of Italian fascism and when early reports came through about violent acts by Benito Mussolini's fascio in 1921 he praised it as proof that Italy was regaining her strength.[8]

Bainville was appointed to a chair at Académie française in 1935, although he did not hold the position long as he died soon afterwards.[9] A strong Catholic, he was denied the last rites by Cardinal Jean Verdier as the Pope had condemned Action Française in 1926. Nonetheless the sacrament, as well as his funeral, were performed by a canon who was sympathetic to the movement.[7] Bainville's funeral proved a further source of controversy when Léon Blum was set upon by a crowd of mourners during the funeral procession.[10]

References

  1. ↑ C.P. Blamires, World Fascism - A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 29
  2. ↑ Nolte, Ernst (1965). Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian fascism, National Socialism. New York: Mentor. p. 128. 
  3. ↑ Stanislav Andreski, 'Poland', SJ Woolf (ed.), Fascism in Europe, London: Methuen, 1981, p. 182
  4. ↑ C.P. Blamires, World Fascism - A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 135
  5. ↑ Nolte, Ernst (1965). Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian fascism, National Socialism. New York: Mentor. p. 106. 
  6. ↑ Nolte, Ernst (1965). Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian fascism, National Socialism. New York: Mentor. p. 108. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890, p. 19
  8. ↑ F.L. Carsten, The Rise of Fascism, London: Methuen & Co, 1974, p. 79
  9. ↑ Nolte, op cit, p. 590
  10. ↑ R.J.B. Bosworth, The Oxford Handbook of Fascism, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 514
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