Pierre Gaxotte

Pierre Gaxotte (19 November 1895 – 21 November 1982) was a French historian.

Biography

Gaxotte was born in Revigny-sur-Ornain, Meuse. He began his career as a history teacher at the Lycée Charlemagne and later worked as a columnist for Le Figaro. Over the course of his life he authored numerous historical studies, and was elected to the Académie française in 1953.^[1]

He is famous for his critical vision of the French Revolution, notably in The French Revolution (1928),^[2] and for his rehabilitation of the French 18th century (Louis XV's Century, 1933). He is also known as a right-wing journalist of the Entre-deux-Guerres period.

Works in English translation

• The French Revolution, C. Scribner's Sons, 1932.^[3][4]
• Louis XV and His Times, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1934.
• Frederick the Great, G. Bell and Sons, 1941 [Rep. by Yale University Press, 1942; Greenwood Press, 1975].^[5][6]
• The Age of Louis XIV, Macmillan, 1970.

References

1. Académie française (2011). "Pierre Gaxotte (1895-1982)" (in French). Academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
2. Beum, Robert. "Ultra-Royalism Revisited," Modern Age, Summer 1997.
3. Andrews, George Gordon. "The French Revolution by Pierre Gaxotte," The Journal of Modern History, Vol. V, No. 1, Mar., 1933.
4. Brinton, Crane. "The French Revolution by Pierre Gaxotte," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 26, No. 6, Dec., 1932.
5. Trevor-Roper, Hugh. "Frederick the Great," Horizon, July 1941.
6. Brinton, Crane. "The Aggressor Can Win," The Saturday Review, May 9, 1942.