My research focuses on the long history of the French Revolution from the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century (1640-1830) across the vast Atlantic region. This has led me to work on the radical ideas and practices of those most involved in the revolutionary process.
In addition, I work on the foundation of the state that came out of the conflicts between the legislative powers and executive powers in this revolution and the question of the revolution’s end, which led me to invent the historico-political concept of “extreme center.”
Fifteen years ago, I started a second project concerning the political history of animals and the relationship between humanity and animality in the second half of the 18th century. Bestialisation, animalisation, dehumanisation, sub-humanisation, racialism, are at the center of my reflections.
From this perspective, and in a Foucauldian sense, I have been working on forms of sexuality and am building the foundations of an essay on the question of a sexual revolution through the political revolution between 1789 and 1804 (the date of the writing of the Civil Code and the long inferiorization of women throughout 19th century France).
From 2019 to 2024, I will be at the Institut Universitaire de France, working on a project called, En faisant , en écrivant la Révolution ( Making and Writing the Revolution), which proposes to study how actors had written at the time of the Revolution, long before the positive historiography of the 19th century. The Revolution as they saw it, from not only their subject positions but also their unique perspectives and observations, has been too often overlooked by historians of the French Revolution.
Bernstein Library in Senshu University, in this case, will be very helpful for me, especially for my chapter regarding counter- revolution and the very original personality of the Comte de Montlosier.
1963 Birth
1986 Agrégation (Highest Teaching Diploma) in history
1992 Linguistic attaché (advisor) for the French embassy in Italy, based in Catania
1994 Doctorate under the direction of Michel Vovelle; “Antonelle, aristocrate Révolutionnaire 1747 -1817 (Antonelle, Revolutionary Aristocrat 1747-1817).
1995 Assistant Professor at Reims University
1999 Elected Assistant professor at Paris I University
2005 Habilitation to Conduct Research (HDR) on the theme of The Republic of the weathervanes 1789-1815 and beyond, a French anomaly, the extreme center
2008 Election to the position of Professor at Paris I Pahtnéon Sorbonne
2009- 2015 Director of the Institute of History of the French Revolution
2019 Election to the Institut Universitaire de France for a period of 5 years (2019-2024)
2023 Visiting Professor, Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo
Since 2008 until today, I have completed 70 missions around the world to give seminars and lectures and participate in conferences in the Americas, Europe, and throughout Oceania.
2021, La Révolution française, La documentation photographique, Cnrs éditions.
2019, Que demande le peuple ? L’histoire des cahiers des états généraux de 1789, Paris, Textuel.
2019, L’extrême-centre, un poison français,1789-2019, Ceysérieux, Champ Vallon.
2017, Antonelle, Aristocrate et révolutionnaire, Arles, Actes sud, 2017.
2017, Comme des bêtes ; 1750-1840, une histoire politique des animaux, Paris, Fayard.
2016, L’animal en République. 1789-1802, Genèse du droit des bêtes. Anacharsis, Toulouse. Traduit en italien Gli animli nelle rapubblica 1789 -1802, Varese, Mimesis en 2019.
2013, Fratelli di francia. Storia e Storiografia di une rivoluzione divenuta repubblicana (1792-1804) , Milano, Guerini Associati, 280 pages, 2013.
2008, La seconde république d’Arles, une ville en révolution. in Histoire de la ville d’Arles, Actes Sud Editeur. p.791-812.
2007 ( réed. « poche » 2002), Croiser le fer, Culture et Violence de l’Epée dans la France moderne (XVIème- XVIIIème Siècles), aux Editions Champ Vallon, en collaboration avec Pascal Brioist et Hervé Drévillon.
2006 (réed. Points-Seuil, 2000), « Comment meurt une Monarchie », in Histoire politique de l’Ancien Régime, sous la direction de Joël Cornette, Editions du Seuil, Paris, novembre 2000, p. 355-445.
2005, – La République des Girouettes – 1795-1815 et au delà / une anomalie politique : la France de l’extrême centre, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2005.
1997, – Antonelle, Aristocrate Révolutionnaire – 1747-1817, Préface de Michel Vovelle, Editions du Félin, Paris, 1997, p.499.
Work awarded, in January 1998, by the Grand Prix Historique de Provence 1997, decided by the Jury of the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, under the chairmanship of professors Agulhon from Collège de France, and Bautier, from l’Institut.
