Henri Vaugeois

Henri Vaugeois (April 25, 1864-April 11, 1916) was a French far right politician and one of the founders of Action Française.

Biography

Born in L'Aigle, Orne, Vaugeois settled in Coulommiers where he taught philosophy.[1] Initially a republican liberal,[1] Vaugeois even flirted with Marxism in his youth.[2] However he later came to side with the anti-Dreyfus camp and 1899 lost his teaching post after joining Paul Déroulède's half-hearted coup attempt.[1] In 1898 he had, along with Maurice Pujo, been the founder of the Comité de l'Action Française which Charles Maurras used as the basis of the movement.[3] Maurras soon convinced Vaugeois to abandon his republican ideals in favour of monarchism.[4]

Vaugeois was a weak politician and a poor speaker and as such did not gain much influence in the new movement, over and above directing the group's eponymous daily paper (which he and Pujo had initially founded).[5] Within the movement he became one of the strongest voices in support of anti-Semitism.[6]

He died in Paris, leaving behind a widow who was several years his junior.[7]

Works

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rees, Philip (1990). Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890. New York: Simon & Shuster, p. 402.
  2. Stuart, Robert (2006). Marxism and National Identity: Socialism, Nationalism, and National Socialism During the French fin de Siècle. SUNY Press, p. 142.
  3. Carsten, F.L. (1982). The Rise of Fascism. University of California Press, p. 12.
  4. Gildea, Robert (2008). Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914. Harvard University Press, p. 277.
  5. Rees (1990), p. 403.
  6. Weber, Eugen (1962). Action Française: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth Century France. Stanford University Press, p. 199.
  7. Weber (1962), p. 112.

External links