Figures de proue: D'Alexandre le Grand au Grand Mogol

by René Grousset

336pages. in8. broché. Traduit de Sénès Florence -Illustrations de Jankovics györgy.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

René Grousset (September 5, 1885 – September 12, 1952) was a French historian specializing in Asiatic and Oriental history.
He was born in Aubais, Gard in 1885.

Having graduated from the University of Montpellier with a degree in history he began his distinguished career in the French Ministry of Fine Arts soon afterward. He served in the French army during World War I. In 1925 Grousset was appointed adjunct conservator of the Musee Guimet in Paris and secretary of the Journal asiatique. By 1930 he had published five major works on Asiatic and Oriental civilizations. In 1933 he was appointed director of the Cernuschi Museum in Paris and curator of its Asiatic art collections. He wrote a major work on the Chinese buddhist medieval pilgrim Huien Tsang, particularly emphasising the importance of his visit to the northern Indian buddhist university of Nalanda.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Grousset had published his two most important works, Histoire des Croisades (1934-1936) and L'Empire des Steppes (1939). Dismissed from his museum posts by the Vichy government, he continued his research privately and published three volumes on China and the Mongols during the war. Following the liberation of France, he resumed his curatorship of the Cernuschi Museum and in addition was appointed curator of the Musee Guimet. In 1946, Grousset was made a member of the French Academy. Between 1946 and 1949 he published four final works, concentrating on Asia Minor and the Near East.

-Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this classic French text, Asian specialist René Grousset analyses some of history's most enigmatic Uber-leaders: Pericles, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Frederick II, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon I, Bismarck, Kublai Khan, and Akbar. Each is show in their greatest accomplishments in furthering their empires, but also with their fatal flaws which ultimately led to the fall of all that they built with in generations after their death. It is a fascinating panorama of human history and makes for toothy, but interesting reading. I certainly learned a lot, for example:
- Pericles, despite having been spectacularly victorious over Darius and the Persians in the Medic Wars made the error of becoming cocky and treating the islands of Greece in an imperial fashion which led them all to side with Sparta over Athens in the Peloponnese Wars leading to Athens rapid demise
- Alexander was driven by his ego beyond the lines of his supply and obsessed with this man-god status. This led to being unprepared for the further reaches of his conquests and the impreparedness of those who followed him to maintain his vast empire.
- Julius Gaias was brilliant but never convinced the aristocracy of his legitimacy before taking the title of Caesar and was, despite his brilliant military successes in Gaul, murdered by jealous Senators much too early. The precedent of his ego certainly wore off on Augustus and left a stain on the string of Roman emperors that followed as well as an atmosphere of violence

[Vincent Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encore un livre reçu par hasard mais qui s'est révélé être fort utile, me permettant de revoir, de synthétiser et de mettre en relation plusieurs connaissances historiques éparses. On y traite de dirigeants historiques arrivant à un moment de l'histoire où les possibilités semblaient infinies, l'avenir ne demandant qu'à être modelé par celui qui aura la volonté d'influer sur le destin du monde. Les raisons de leurs succès et échecs sont expliquées par le contact entre ces volontés souveraines et les déterminismes déjà inscrits dans leur époque, ou apparaissant au fil du parcours, la glaise modelée par eux se durcissant et les gardant captifs de leurs propres décisions. Les traces que ces tentatives laisseront détermineront les possibles pour la suite de l'Histoire. C'est ainsi que dès Périclès avec l'idée du panhellénisme, l'idée impériale restera en arrière-plan, l'ouvrage décrivant en nuances comment les différents personnages historiques tenteront de faire l'unité de territoires de composition souvent hétérogènes. Paru initialement en 49 alors que le monde était en pleine recomposition, il est particulièrement intéressant de redécouvrir cette œuvre à une époque où cet ordre est de nouveau en remise en question.