René Grousset facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
René Grousset
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 5 September 1885 Aubais, Gard
|
| Died | 12 September 1952 (aged 67) Paris, France
|
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | historian and curator |
René Grousset (born September 5, 1885, died September 12, 1952) was a famous French historian. He worked as a curator at the Cernuschi Museum and the Guimet Museum in Paris. He was also a member of the important Académie française, which is a top French group for people who are experts in language and literature.
Grousset wrote many important books about Asia and the East. Two of his most well-known books are Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem (about the Crusades) and The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (about Central Asian history). These books are still used as key references today.
About René Grousset
René Grousset was born in Aubais, Gard, France, in 1885. He studied history at the University of Montpellier. After graduating, he began his impressive career.
He served in the French army during World War I. In 1925, Grousset became an assistant curator at the Musée Guimet in Paris. He also became the secretary for the Journal asiatique, a journal about Asian studies.
By 1930, he had already published five major books. These books were all about Asian and Eastern civilizations. In 1933, he became the director of the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. He also took care of its collections of Asian art.
Grousset wrote an important book about a Chinese Buddhist traveler named Xuanzang. He especially focused on Xuanzang's visit to the ancient Buddhist university of Nalanda in northern India.
Before World War II started, Grousset published his two most important books. These were Histoire des Croisades (1934-1936) and L'Empire des Steppes (1939).
During the war, he was temporarily removed from his museum jobs by the Vichy government. But he kept doing his research privately. During this time, he published three books about China and the Mongols.
After France was freed, he returned to his job at the Cernuschi Museum. He was also made a curator at the Guimet Museum. In 1946, Grousset became a member of the Académie française. Between 1946 and 1949, he published four more books. These books focused on Asia Minor and the Near East.
René Grousset passed away in Paris in 1952, at 67 years old.
How Others Saw His Work
When Grousset's History of the Crusades was first published, some historians had different opinions. For example, historian Christopher Tyerman noted that some people felt the book didn't look closely enough at the political system of the French states in the Middle East. Others thought he might have made the cultural connections between different groups seem stronger than they were.
Later, in 1981, historian Hans Eberhard Mayer said that Grousset's "History of the Crusades" was one of the last general works on the topic that showed a strong national pride in its research.
More recently, historians who followed Grousset have noticed that his ideas were shaped by the way people thought about France's role in the world at the time. In 2001, fr:Joël Gourdon wrote that Grousset's work was very much about France's role in its colonies. He saw the idea of colonization as a mix of values important to him, like Christianity and the idea of the nation. He even saw the Crusades as an early example of France's "civilizing mission."
In 2007, medieval historian Pierre Aubé also commented on Grousset. He said that Grousset was very knowledgeable and used the best information from other experts. However, Aubé noted that Grousset's way of interpreting facts was strongly influenced by the ideas about colonialism that were common in the 1920s and 1930s when he wrote his main works.
fr:Vadime Elisseeff, who took over Grousset's role as director of the Cernuschi museum, described him as "the last of the great classics." He meant that Grousset focused more on the psychology of people in history rather than on the everyday conditions of life. Elisseeff added that Grousset's books are valuable because they show intelligent ideas and present facts in a clear, easy-to-read style.
Books by René Grousset
- 1922 – Histoire de l'Asie
- 1923 – Histoire de la philosophie orientale
- 1924 – Le réveil de l'Asie
- 1926 – L'épopée des Croisades
- 1928 – La Grèce et l'Orient, des guerres médiques à la conquête romaine
- 1929 – Histoire de l'Extrême-Orient
- 1929 – Sur les traces de Bouddha, tableau du VIIe siècle bouddhique
- In the Footsteps of the Buddha. JA Underwood (trans) Orion Press. New York (1971)
- 1929–1930 – Les civilisations de l'Orient, 4 vol.
- 1931 – Les philosophies indiennes
- 1934–1936 – Histoire des Croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem, 3 vol. Paris: Plon.
- 1936 – L'art de l'Extrême Orient : paysages, fleurs, animaux
- 1937 – De Venise à Pékin au XIVe siècle : Odoric de Pordenone (with H. Demoulin-Bernard)
- 1939 – Les sculptures des Indes et de la Chine
- 1939 – L'empire des steppes : Attila, Gengis-Khan, Tamerlan Paris: Editions Payot.
- The Empire of the Steppes. (tr., Naomi Walford). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. (1970) ISBN: 978-0-8135-1304-1; .
- 1941 – L'empire mongol
- 1941 – L'Asie orientale, des origines au XVe siècle (with J. Auboyer et J. Buhot)
- 1942 – Histoire de Chine
- 1944 – Le conquérant du monde : vie de Gengis-Khan
- 1945 – L'Europe orientale de 1081 à 1453 (with C. DIehl, R. Guilland et L. Oeconomos)
- 1946 – L'empire du Levant : histoire de la question d'Orient
- 1946 – Bilan de l'histoire
- 1947 – Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071 Paris: Payot.
- 1948 – De la Grèce à la Chine
- 1949 – Figures de proue
- 1950 – Les premières civilisations (collective work)
- 1950 – De l'Inde au Cambodge et à Java (with J. Auboyer)
- 1951 – De la Chine au Japon
See also
In Spanish: René Grousset para niños
