Jaurès, Jean

(1859-1914)

   political figure, philosopher, historian Considered a great French patriot and humanitarian, as well as a Socialist leader, Jean Jaurès was born in Castres, Tarn, and became professor of philosophy at Albi, then at the university of Toulouse. In 1885, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies but was defeated in the election of 1889. He then returned to teaching and wrote his thesis, De la réalité du monde sensible: Les Origines du socialisme allemand chez Luther, Kant, Fichte, Hegel (1891). Elected as a Socialist deputy for Carmaux (1893), Jaurès worked for the unification of the socialist movement in France. in 1898, he took a position supporting Captain Alfred dreyfus (Preuves, 1898) and subsequently defended the participation of the Socialist Alexandre millerand in the waldeck-rousseau government of 1899 over the opposition of jules guesde and other party leaders. Jaurès took this position to save the threatened republic from its enemies on the Right. in 1904, he founded the socialist daily, l'humanité and, in 1905, unified the warring factions of French socialism into a single coalition, the section française de L'internationale ouvrière (SFIO). Jaurès also continued to speak and write extensively. As a member of the Parlement, he supported laws on public education and workers rights, and strongly criticized French colonialism and imperialism. At the same time, he urged international arbitration of disputes among nations. Just as his socialism was liberal and democratic, his internationalism and pacifism were tied to a democratic patriotism, linked also with his idea for a "new army." Opposed to the coming world war, Jaurès was shot and killed by a nationalist in July 1914, on the eve of World War I. As the nation went to war, the government publicly mourned his death. in 1924, his remains were transferred to the Panthéon. An individual respected for his honesty, idealism, and patriotism, Jaurès has left other writings, including Action socialiste (1899); Études socialistes (1901); and his major work, Histoire socialiste de la Révolution française, 1789-1900, published between 1901 and 1908.