author
Paul Gaffarel
1843–1920
A prolific French historian, he wrote vividly about the French Revolution, exploration, and the colonial world. His books helped shape how late-19th-century readers understood France’s past and overseas ambitions.
1 Audiobook
Bonaparte et les Républiques Italiennes (1796-1799)
by Paul Gaffarel
About the author
Born in Moulins on October 2, 1843, and died in Marseille on December 27, 1920, Paul Gaffarel was a French historian and university professor. He taught history at the Faculty of Letters in Dijon and later at Aix-Marseille, and he became known as a remarkably productive writer.
Gaffarel published widely on the French Revolution, colonial history, and the history of exploration. Among his best-known works are studies of French Florida and French exploration after 1870, along with books connected to Algeria and other parts of the French colonial world. His writing often aimed to bring distant places and historical turning points to a broad reading public.
Today, he is remembered both for the range of his scholarship and for what it reveals about the outlook of the Third Republic. For modern readers, his work can be especially interesting as a window into the historical and colonial ideas that were influential in France during his lifetime.