Adolphe Thiers

Born in Marseille in 1797, Adolphe Thiers first made his name in Paris as a journalist and writer. He helped found the newspaper Le National in 1830 and built a reputation as an energetic political voice during a time of constant upheaval in France.

He went on to become a major figure in public life under Louis-Philippe, serving more than once as prime minister. Alongside politics, he wrote large-scale histories of the French Revolution and of the Consulate and Empire, works that helped make him one of the best-known historian-politicians of 19th-century France.

After the collapse of the Second Empire, he became a leading figure in the new French government and served as the first president of the Third Republic from 1871 to 1873. His legacy is important but also contested, especially because of his role in the suppression of the Paris Commune. He died in 1877 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.