Jean Jaures

Jean Jaurès , 1859-1914, French Socialist leader and historian. A brilliant student and teacher, he entered the chamber of deputies in 1885 and subsequently became a Socialist. In his Socialist journals, notably Humanité, he denounced nationalism and upheld socialism and world peace. Jaurès saw socialism as the economic equivalent of political democracy; he believed that economic equality would come as the result of peaceful revolution. He sought to reconcile Marxian materialism and his own idealistic beliefs and emphasized the importance of individual rights and initiative. As leader of the Socialists, he opposed Boulanger, defended Dreyfus, and worked for the separation of church and state. He was active in the formation (1905) of the unified French Socialist party, and he attempted to preserve party harmony. In 1914, Jaurès advocated arbitration instead of war and declared that capitalist nations, including France, were responsible for the war crisis. He was assassinated by a fanatical patriot in July, 1914. His Histoire socialiste de la Révolution française (new ed. by Albert Mathiez, 8 vol., 1922-24), an economic interpretation of the French Revolution, strikes a balance between the materialistic approach of Marx and the dramatic history of Michelet.

Bibliography: See biographies by J. H. Jackson (1943) and H. Goldberg (1962).

Jaurès, Jean (1859–1914) French socialist leader. Entering parliament (1885), his campaign on behalf of DREYFUS and against ANTI-SEMITISM strengthened socialist support in France. In 1905 he formed the United Socialist Party, which put pressure on the radical governments in order to achieve reforms for the working class. He opposed militarism, but tried to reconcile socialist internationalism and French patriotism. He was assassinated by a French nationalist in 1914.

Jaurès, Jean (b. 3 Sept. 1859, d. 31 July 1914). French socialist A student of the École Normale Supérieure, he became a professor of philosophy in Toulouse before becoming a member of the Chamber of Deputies, first as a moderate Republican 1885, and then as a Socialist from 1893. In 1904, he founded the Socialist newpaper L'Humanité. One of the greatest orators of his day, he became one of the chief architects of a single Socialist Party, the SFIO, in 1905. In the increasingly tense international climate before World War I, his major concern was the quest for peace, which earned him the enmity of ultra-nationalists, one of whom assassinated him.