The son of an unsuccessful businessman and farmer, Jean Jaurès was born inCastres,Tarn, into a modest French provincialhaut-bourgeois family. His younger brother,Louis, became an admiral and aRepublican-Socialist deputy.
In 1889, after unsuccessfully contesting the Castres seat, this time under the banner of Socialism, he returned to his professional duties atToulouse, where he took an active interest in municipal affairs and helped to found the medical faculty of the university. He also prepared two theses for his doctorate in philosophy,De primis socialismi germanici lineamentis apudLutherum,Kant,Fichte etHegel ("On the first delineations of German socialism in the writings of [Martin] Luther, [Immanuel] Kant, [Johann Gottlieb] Fichte and [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel") (1891), andDe la réalité du monde sensible.[2]
Jaurès became a highly influential historian of theFrench Revolution. Research in the archives in theBibliothèque Nationale in Paris led him to the formulation of a theoretical Marxist interpretation of the events.[4] His bookHistoire Socialiste (1900–03) shaped interpretations—fromAlbert Mathiez (1874–1932),Albert Soboul (1914–1982) andGeorges Lefebvre (1874–1959)—that came to dominate teaching analysis in class-conflict terms well into the 1980s. Jaurès emphasized the central role the middle class played in the aristocraticBrumaire, as well as the emergence of the working class "sans-culottes" who espoused a political outlook and social philosophy that came to dominate revolutionary movements on the left.[5][6]
Jaurès was initially a moderate republican, opposed to bothClemenceau's Radicalism and socialism. He developed into a socialist during the late 1880s, when he was in his late 20s. In 1892 the miners ofCarmaux went on strike over the dismissal of their leader,Jean Baptiste Calvignac.Jaurès's campaigning forced the government to intervene and requireCalvignac's reinstatement.The following year, Jaurès was re-elected to the National Assembly as socialist deputy for Tarn, a seat he retained (apart from the four years 1898 to1902) until his death.
Defeated in thelegislative election of 1898, he spent four years without a legislative seat. His eloquent speeches nonetheless made him a force to be reckoned with as an intellectual champion of socialism. He editedLa Petite République, and was, along withÉmile Zola, one of the most energetic defenders ofAlfred Dreyfus during theDreyfus Affair.[4] He approved ofAlexandre Millerand, and the socialist's inclusion in theRené Waldeck-Rousseaucabinet, though this led to an irredeemable split with the more revolutionary section led byJules Guesde[2] forming the Independent Socialists Party.[7]
During theCombes administration his influence secured the coherence of theRadical-Socialist coalition known as theBloc des gauches,[2] which enacted the1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. In 1904, he founded the socialist paperL'Humanité.[8] According to Geoffrey Kurtz, Jaures was "instrumental" in the reforms carried out by the administration, Emile Combes, "influencing the content of legislation and keeping the factions within the Bloc united."[9] Following the Amsterdam Congress of theSecond International, the French socialist groups held a Congress atRouen in March 1905, which resulted in a new consolidation, with the merger of Jaurès's French Socialist Party and Guesde's Socialist Party of France. The new party, headed by Jaurès and Guesde, ceased to co-operate with the Radical groups, and became known as theParti Socialiste Unifié (PSU, Unified Socialist Party), pledged to advance acollectivist programme.[2] All the socialist movements unified the same year in theFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).[4]
On 1 May 1905 Jaurès visited a newly formed wine making cooperative inMaraussan.[10] He said the peasants had to unite instead of refusing to help each other. He told them to, "in the vat of the Republic, prepare the wine of the Social Revolution!".[11] As therevolt of the Languedoc winegrowers developed, on 11 June 1907 Jaurès filed a bill withJules Guesde that proposed nationalization of the wine estates.[12] After troops had shot wine-growing demonstrators later that month, Parliament renewed its confidence in the government. Jaurès'sL'Humanité carried the headline, "The House acquits the mass killers of the Midi".[12]
In thegeneral elections of 1906, Jaurès was again elected for the Tarn. His ability was now generally recognized, but the strength of the SFIO still had to reckon with radical Georges Clemenceau, who was able to appeal to his countrymen (in a notable speech in the spring of 1906) to rally to a Radical programme which had no socialist ideas in view, although Clemenceau was sensitive to the conditions of the working class. Clemenceau's image as a strong and practical leader considerably diminished socialist populism. In addition to daily journalistic activity, Jaurès publishedLes preuves;Affaire Dreyfus (1900);Action socialiste (1899);Études socialistes (1902), and, with other collaborators,Histoire socialiste (1901), etc.[13]
In 1911, he travelled toLisbon andBuenos Aires. He supported, albeit not without criticisms, the teaching ofregional languages, such asOccitan,Basque andBreton, commonly known as "patois", thus opposing, on this issue, traditional RepublicanJacobinism.[14] Jaures opposed imperialism, arguing that it posed a threat to peace in Europe.[15]
Jaurès was a committedantimilitarist who tried to use diplomatic means to prevent what became the First World War. In 1913, he opposedÉmile Driant'sThree-Year Service Law, which implemented adraft period, and tried to promote understanding between France and Germany. As conflict became imminent, he tried to organisegeneral strikes in France andGermany in order to force the governments to back down and negotiate. This proved difficult, however, as many Frenchmen sought revenge (revanche) for their country's defeat in theFranco-Prussian War and the return of the lostAlsace-Lorraine territory. Then, in May 1914, with Jaurès intending to form an alliance withJoseph Caillaux for the labour movement, the Socialists won the General Election. They planned to take office and "press for a policy of European peace". Jaurès accused French PresidentRaymond Poincaré of being "more Russian than Russia" and premierRené Viviani as being compliant.
In July 1914, he attended the Socialist Congress in Brussels where he struck up a constructive solidarity with German socialist party leaderHugo Haase. On the 20th of that month, Jaurès voted against a parliamentary subsidy for Poincaré's visit to St. Petersburg; which he condemned as both dangerous and provocative. The Caillaux–Jaurès alliance was dedicated to defeating military objectives that were aimed at precipitating war. France sent a mission, headed by Poincaré, to coordinate French and Russian responses. Always a pacifist, Jaurès rushed back to Paris to attempt an impossible reconciliation with the government. Russia had partially mobilized, which Germany took as an extreme provocation.[16]
On 31 July 1914, Jaurès was assassinated. At 9 pm, he went to dine at theCafé du Croissant onRue Montmartre. Forty minutes later,Raoul Villain, a 29-year-old French nationalist, walked up to the restaurant window and fired two shots into Jaurès's back.[17] He died five minutes later at 9:45 pm. Jaurès had been due to attend an international conference on 9 August, in an attempt to dissuade the belligerent parties from going ahead with the war.[18] Villain also intended to murderHenriette Caillaux with his two engraved pistols.[19] Tried afterWorld War I and acquitted, he was later killed by theRepublicans in 1936 during theSpanish Civil War.
Shock waves ran through the streets of Paris. One of the government's most charismatic and compelling orators had been assassinated. His opponent, President Poincaré, sent his sympathies to Jaurès's widow. Paris was on the brink of revolution: Jaurès had been advocating a general strike and had narrowly avoided sedition charges. One important consequence was that the cabinet postponed the arrest of socialist revolutionaries. Viviani reassured Britain of Belgian neutrality but also said that "the gloves were off".
Commemorative plaque at the Café Croissant
Jaurès's murder brought matters one step closer to world war. It helped to destabilise the French government, whilst simultaneously breaking a link in the chain of international solidarity.[clarification needed] Speaking at Jaurès's funeral a few days later,CGT leaderLéon Jouhaux declared, "All working men ... we take the field with the determination to drive back the aggressor."[20] As if in reverence to his memory, the Socialists in the Chamber agreed to suspend all sabotage activity in support of theUnion Sacrée. Poincaré commented that, "In the memory of man, there had never been anything more beautiful in France."[21]
On 23 November 1924, his remains were transferred to thePanthéon.[22][23]
Joseph Caillaux and Jaurès were fellow anti-militarists trying to halt the slide to war in July 1914. But Caillaux was paralyzed, politically and emotionally, by the trial of hiswife for murder. With the trial over (July 28) Caillaux and Jaurès hoped they could expose the President's secret deal with Russia. This would have led to a policy ofdétente with Germany, preventing war and the inevitable carnage. Russia had covertly subsidized Poincaré's election campaign.[24]Poincaré had, in this theory, therefore abandoned socialism for another party and warfare. Even if Germany intentionally condemned Belgium to occupation, they had already accused Russia of starting the conflict. This theory, downplaying Germany's aggressive moves, was not widely supported in France.[16]
In the centenary year of his assassination, politicians from all sides of the political spectrum paid tribute to him and claimed he would have supported them.François Hollande declared that "Jaurès, the man of socialism, is today the man of all of France" while in 2007,Nicolas Sarkozy declared that his party was Jaurès's successor.[25]
Ducange, Jean-Numa; Marcobelli, Elisa, eds. (2021),Selected Writings of Jean Jaurès: On Socialism, Pacifism and Marxism, translated by Broder, David, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,ISBN9783030719586
Studies in Socialism, translated by Minturn, Mildred, 2025,ISBN979-8288291135
Speech To The Youth, Sydney: Planktos Press, 2024 [1903],ISBN978-1922931061
^James Friguglietti and Barry Rothaus, "A new view of Jean Jaures'Histoire Socialiste."Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Selected Papers (1994), pp 254–261.
^James Friguglietti, "Albert Mathiez, an Historian at War."French Historical Studies (1972): 570–586in JSTOR
^Jean Jaurès, "L'éducation populaire et les 'patois'", inLa Dépêche, 15 August 1911 "Méthode comparée", inRevue de l'Enseignement Primaire, 15 October 1911.On-line(in French)
^Beatty (2012) states that "[T]he close January 17, 1913, vote in theChamber... elevated Poincaré to the presidency... Rumored at the time, Russian subsidies to the Paris press were revealed in the 1920s byL'Humanité, the journal of the French Communist party, the Bolsheviks having supplied the editors with the tsarist documents. By 1912, the subsidies, administered by the French finance minister,M. Klotz, totaled more than two million francs a year. For this sum, Russia got favorable publicity for its railroad loan requests, for the presidential candidacy of Raymond Poincaré, and for his pro-Russian policies as premier and president. [footnote 76, details on p. 366] Always awkward, the Republic's alliance with tsarist autocracy became so close under Poincaré that a Toulouse paper could plausibly ask: 'Is France Republican or Cossack?'" (p. 234). Foornote 76 (p. 366) states "For details on reptile fund, see Sidney B. Fay,The Origins of the War, vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1927), 270, n. 79. Also James William Long, "Russian Manipulation of the French Press, 1904–1906,"Slavic Review 31, no. 2 (June 1972): 343–354. Berenson,The Trial of Madame Caillaux, 235–236."
Albertini, Luigi; Massey, Isabella M. (trans.) (2005) [1955].The origins of the War of 1914 (1st English edition (Oxford, 1955), updated (Enigma, 2005), original Italian edition published in 1942–1943 in Milan, Italy, byFratelli Bocca ed.). OxfordNew York: Oxford University Press (1st English ed., 1955) / Enigma Books (updated, 2005).ISBN192963126X.
Parent, Antoine; Parent, Marcel; Pradier, Pierre-Charles; Gauthier, Laurent (2025), "Jaurès's The New Army (1911): the organisation of democratic institutions as war prevention",Journal of Institutional Economics,21 e23,doi:10.1017/S174413742500013X
Vignerons coopérateurs de l'Hérault,Histoire de la coopération (in French), Vignerons coopérateurs de l'Hérault, archived fromthe original on 25 September 2011, retrieved2 March 2018
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