Jean Jaurès – författare

''Tantalizing prose'' - TLS

Jean Jaurès was the celebrated French Socialist Party leader, assassinated in 1914 for trying to use diplomacy and industrial action to prevent the outbreak of war. Published just a few years before his death, his magisterial A Socialist History of the French Revolution has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts of the French Revolution ever to be published.

Written in the midst of his activities as leader of the Socialist Party and editor of its newspaper, L''Humanité, Jaurès intended the book to serve as both a guide and an inspiration to political activity; even now it can serve to do just that.

Jaurès''s verve, originality and willingness to criticise all players in this epic drama make this a truly moving addition to the shelf of great books on the French Revolution. Now available for the first time in paperback, Mitchell Abidor’s abridged translation of Jaurès''s original six volumes makes this exceptional work truly accessible to an Anglophone audience.

The first English language translation from the French of Jean Jaurès'' Discours à la jeunesse (1903). In giving this speech, Jaurès returns to the high school where he had taught philosophy, instructing the young audience that peace is possible for future generations, but not through war or military force. Foreword by Gilles Candar, president of La société d''études jaurésiennes.

While best known as the early twentieth-century leader of the French Socialist Party, and as the founder of the newspaper L''Humanite, Jaurès (1859-1914) was also a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Toulouse, and an influential historian of the French Revolution. A dedicated antimilitarist, Jaurès was assassinated whilst working to prevent the outbreak of the First World War.