René Grousset | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 5 September 1885 |
| Died | 12 September 1952(1952-09-12) (aged 67) Paris, France |
| Occupations | historian and curator |
René Grousset (French pronunciation:[ʁəneɡʁusɛ]; 5 September 1885 – 12 September 1952) was a Frenchhistorian who was curator of both theCernuschi Museum and theGuimet Museum inParis and a member of the prestigiousAcadémie française. He wrote several major works onAsiatic andOriental civilizations, with his two most important works beingHistoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem (1934–1936) andThe Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (1939), both of which were considered standard references on the subject.
Grousset was born inAubais,Gard, in 1885.[1] Having graduated from theUniversity of Montpellier with a degree in history, he soon began his distinguished career soon. He served in the French Army duringWorld War I. In 1925, Grousset was appointed adjunct conservator of theMusée Guimet inParis and secretary of theJournal asiatique.
By 1930, he had published five major works on Asiatic and Orientalcivilizations. In 1933, he was appointed director of theCernuschi Museum in Paris and curator of its Asiatic art collections. He wrote a major work on the Chinese Buddhist medieval pilgrimXuanzang, particularly emphasising the importance of his visit to the northern Indian Buddhist university ofNalanda.[2]
At the outbreak ofWorld War II, Grousset had published his two most important works,Histoire des Croisades(1934-1936)[3] andL'Empire des Steppes (1939).[4][5]
Dismissed from his museum posts by theVichy government, he continued his research privately and published three volumes onChina and theMongols during the war. After theliberation of France, he resumed his curatorship of the Cernuschi Museum and was also appointed curator of theGuimet Museum. In 1946, Grousset was made a member of theFrench Academy. Between 1946 and 1949, he published four final works, concentrating onAsia Minor and theNear East.[6]
In 1952, Grousset died at the age of 67 in Paris.
The British historianChristopher Tyerman points out that upon publication, Grousset'sHistory of the Crusades came under criticism, on the one hand for not analyzing the political system of what Grousset considered to be a French state in the Levant and on the other hand for exaggerating or misrepresenting the cultural sympathy between overseas communities. The American historians Frederic Duncalf and John Life La Monte were particularly severe.[7]
In 1981, the German historianHans Eberhard Mayer estimated that Grousset's "History of the Crusades" was, among the general works on this subject, "the one in which chauvinism in crusade research raised its ugly head for a last time".[8]
More recently, Grousset's successors have noted that his outlook was shaped by his ideas about France's colonial role. In 2001,fr:Joël Gourdon wrote: "René Grousset produced a work entirely dedicated to France's colonial role. He sees in the colonial adventure the admirable synthesis of the most sacred values for him: Christianity, the fatherland and the State, even republican. He projects this ideal into the Middle Ages and sees in the Crusades the first expression of this 'civilizing mission' which is that of eternal France."[9]
In 2007, the French medieval historianPierre Aubé expressed himself on Grousset in the following manner: "This historian, who knew how to rely on the best of the greatest orientalists of his time, whose erudition is of a rare solidity when it comes to establishing facts, is very oriented when it comes to interpreting them. His angle of vision is very marked by the colonialist utopia that prevailed in the 1920s and 1930s when he built hisopus magnum."[10]
Forfr:Vadime Elisseeff, who succeeded him as director of the Cernuschi Museum, Grousset is "the last of the great classics, those for whom the “sense of history” was more a matter of psychology of beings than of the material conditions of existence, whose physical and moral impact on the lives of individuals had not yet been emphasized by the sciences. His works are valuable by the intelligence of the views and by facts presented in a clear and easily readable style.[11]
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