Bertrand de Jouvenel
Encyclopedia
Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins, usually known only as Bertrand de Jouvenel (31 October 1903, Paris
– 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist.
. He was the son of Henri de Jouvenel and Sarah Boas, the daughter of a Jewish industrialist. Henri divorced Sarah in 1912 to become the second husband of French writer Colette
. In 1920, when he was a mere 16, Bertrand began an affair with his stepmother, who was then in her late 40s. The affair ended Colette's marriage and caused a scandal. It lasted until 1924. Some believe Bertrand to be the role model for the title character in Colette's novel Chéri
, but in fact she had published about half the book, in serial form, before she and her stepson met for the first time, in the spring of 1920. In the 1930s, he participated to the Cahiers Bleus, the review of Georges Valois
' Republican Syndicalist Party
. From 1930 to 1934, De Jouvenel had an affair with the American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn
. They would have married had his wife agreed to a divorce.
In his memoirs, The Invisible Writing
, Arthur Koestler
recalled that in 1934, Jouvenel was among a small number of French intellectuals who promised moral and financial support to the newly-established Institut pour l'Étude du Fascisme, a supposedly self-financing enterprise of the Popular Front
. Other personalities to offer support were Professor Langevin
, the Joliot-Curie
s, André Malraux
, etc.
However, that same year, Jouvenel was impressed by the riot of the antiparliamentary leagues that occurred on February 6, 1934
, became disillusioned with traditional political parties and left the Radical Party. He began a paper with Pierre Andreu called La Lutte des jeunes (The Struggle of the Young) while at the same time contributing to the right wing paper Gringoire, for which he covered the 1935 Nuremberg Congress in Germany where the infamous Nuremberg Laws were passed. He began frequenting royalist and nationalist circles, where he met Henri de Man
and Pierre Drieu la Rochelle
.
He was in favour of Franco-German rapprochement and created the « Cercle du grand pavois », which supported the Comité France–Allemagne (Franco-German Committee). Here he became friends with Otto Abetz
, the future German ambassador to Paris during the occupation. In February 1936 he interviewed Adolf Hitler for the journal Paris-Midi, for which he was criticised for being too friendly to the dictator.
That same year he joined Jacques Doriot
's Parti populaire français
(PPF). He became the editor in chief of its journal L'Émancipation nationale (National Emancipation), wherein he supported facsism. He broke with the PPF in 1938 when Doriot supported the Munich Agreement.
Jouvenel's mother passionately supported Czechoslovakian independence, and so he began his career as a private secretary to Edvard Beneš
, Czechoslovakia
's first prime minister. In 1947, along with Friedrich Hayek
, Jacques Rueff
, and Milton Friedman
, he founded the Mont Pelerin Society
. Later in life, de Jouvenel established the Futuribles International
in Paris.
Jouvenel was among the very few French intellectuals to pay respectful attention to the economic theory and welfare economics
that emerged during the first half of the 20th century in Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This understanding of economics is shown by his The Ethics of Redistribution.
Dennis Hale
of Boston College has co-edited two volumes of essays by Jouvenel.http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/polisci/facstaff/hale.html
published a book, Ni Droite, ni gauche ("Neither Right nor Left"), accusing De Jouvenel of having had fascist sympathies in the 1930s and 40s. De Jouvenel sued in 1983, claiming nine counts of libel, two of which the court upheld. However, Sternhell was required neither to publish a retraction, nor to strike any passages from future printings of his book.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist.
Life
Bertrand was the heir of an old family from the French nobility, coming from the Champagne regionChampagne, France
Champagne is a historic province in the northeast of France, now best known for the sparkling white wine that bears its name.Formerly ruled by the counts of Champagne, its western edge is about 100 miles east of Paris. The cities of Troyes, Reims, and Épernay are the commercial centers of the area...
. He was the son of Henri de Jouvenel and Sarah Boas, the daughter of a Jewish industrialist. Henri divorced Sarah in 1912 to become the second husband of French writer Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
. In 1920, when he was a mere 16, Bertrand began an affair with his stepmother, who was then in her late 40s. The affair ended Colette's marriage and caused a scandal. It lasted until 1924. Some believe Bertrand to be the role model for the title character in Colette's novel Chéri
Chéri (novel)
Chéri is a novel by Colette first published in French in 1920. The title character's true name is Fred Peloux, but he is known as Chéri to almost everyone, except, usually, to his wife...
, but in fact she had published about half the book, in serial form, before she and her stepson met for the first time, in the spring of 1920. In the 1930s, he participated to the Cahiers Bleus, the review of Georges Valois
Georges Valois
Georges Valois was a French journalist and politician.-Life and career:Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist...
' Republican Syndicalist Party
Republican Syndicalist Party
The Republican Syndicalist Party was a French political party founded on June 10, 1928 by Georges Valois following the dissolution of the fascist Faisceau party. The PRS counted among its members Charles Albert, a former anarchist who had turned neo-Jacobin, Jacques Arthuys, Hubert Bourguin and...
. From 1930 to 1934, De Jouvenel had an affair with the American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist, considered by The London Daily Telegraph amongst others to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career...
. They would have married had his wife agreed to a divorce.
In his memoirs, The Invisible Writing
The Invisible Writing
The Invisible Writing: The Second Volume Of An Autobiography, 1932-40 is a book by Arthur Koestler.It follows on from Arrow in the Blue, published a mere two years earlier, and which described his life from his birth in 1905, to 1931, and deals with a much shorter period, a mere eight years...
, Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
recalled that in 1934, Jouvenel was among a small number of French intellectuals who promised moral and financial support to the newly-established Institut pour l'Étude du Fascisme, a supposedly self-financing enterprise of the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
. Other personalities to offer support were Professor Langevin
Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots...
, the Joliot-Curie
Joliot-Curie
Joliot-Curie may refer to more than one person:* Frédéric Joliot-Curie- a French physicist and Nobel prize-winner* Irène Joliot-Curie - his wife and joint prize-winner with her husband...
s, André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
, etc.
However, that same year, Jouvenel was impressed by the riot of the antiparliamentary leagues that occurred on February 6, 1934
6 February 1934 crisis
The 6 February 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the seat of the French National Assembly...
, became disillusioned with traditional political parties and left the Radical Party. He began a paper with Pierre Andreu called La Lutte des jeunes (The Struggle of the Young) while at the same time contributing to the right wing paper Gringoire, for which he covered the 1935 Nuremberg Congress in Germany where the infamous Nuremberg Laws were passed. He began frequenting royalist and nationalist circles, where he met Henri de Man
Henri de Man
Henri De Man was one of the leading Belgian socialist theoreticians of his period, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II...
and Pierre Drieu la Rochelle
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
Pierre Eugène Drieu La Rochelle was a French writer of novels, short stories and political essays, who lived and died in Paris...
.
He was in favour of Franco-German rapprochement and created the « Cercle du grand pavois », which supported the Comité France–Allemagne (Franco-German Committee). Here he became friends with Otto Abetz
Otto Abetz
Dr. Heinrich Otto Abetz was the German ambassador to Vichy France during World War II.-Early years:Abetz was born in Schwetzingen on May 26, 1903. He was the son of an estate manager, who died when Otto was only 13...
, the future German ambassador to Paris during the occupation. In February 1936 he interviewed Adolf Hitler for the journal Paris-Midi, for which he was criticised for being too friendly to the dictator.
That same year he joined Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
's Parti populaire français
Parti Populaire Français
The Parti Populaire Français was a fascist political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during World War II...
(PPF). He became the editor in chief of its journal L'Émancipation nationale (National Emancipation), wherein he supported facsism. He broke with the PPF in 1938 when Doriot supported the Munich Agreement.
Jouvenel's mother passionately supported Czechoslovakian independence, and so he began his career as a private secretary to Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
's first prime minister. In 1947, along with Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
, Jacques Rueff
Jacques Rueff
Jacques Rueff was a French economist and adviser to the French Government.An influential French conservative and free market thinker, Rueff was born the son of a well known Parisian physician and studied economics and mathematics at the École Polytechnique...
, and Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
, he founded the Mont Pelerin Society
Mont Pelerin Society
The Mont Pelerin Society is an international organization composed of economists , philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour classical liberalism...
. Later in life, de Jouvenel established the Futuribles International
Futuribles International
Futuribles International is a Paris-based international, independent, private non-profit organization network on future studies...
in Paris.
Jouvenel was among the very few French intellectuals to pay respectful attention to the economic theory and welfare economics
Welfare economics
Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate economic well-being, especially relative to competitive general equilibrium within an economy as to economic efficiency and the resulting income distribution associated with it...
that emerged during the first half of the 20th century in Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This understanding of economics is shown by his The Ethics of Redistribution.
Dennis Hale
Dennis Hale
Dennis Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College.-Education and teaching:Hale has a B.A. from Oberlin College , an M.A. from Brooklyn College , and a Ph.D...
of Boston College has co-edited two volumes of essays by Jouvenel.http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/polisci/facstaff/hale.html
The Sternhell Controversy
Zeev SternhellZeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...
published a book, Ni Droite, ni gauche ("Neither Right nor Left"), accusing De Jouvenel of having had fascist sympathies in the 1930s and 40s. De Jouvenel sued in 1983, claiming nine counts of libel, two of which the court upheld. However, Sternhell was required neither to publish a retraction, nor to strike any passages from future printings of his book.
Further reading
- Anderson, Brian C., 2001, "Bertrand de Jouvenel's melancholy liberalism," Public Interest, Spring 2001; Iss.143
- Luckey, William R., 1998, "The Economics of Bertrand de Jouvenel," The Journal of Markets and Morality, Volume 1, Number 2 • October 1998