Paul Thureau-Dangin

A French historian and man of letters, Paul Thureau-Dangin was born on December 14, 1837, and died on February 24, 1913. He became especially known for writing about modern French political history, including the reign of Louis-Philippe and the years leading into and beyond the Second Empire.

His work also reached beyond France. He wrote an important study of the Catholic revival in 19th-century England, showing a lasting interest in the ways politics, religion, and public thought shape one another. That mix of clear narrative and intellectual history helped give his books a wide readership.

Thureau-Dangin was elected to the Académie française in 1893 and later served as its Perpetual Secretary, a sign of the esteem he earned in French literary and historical life. He remains remembered as a careful, elegant historian of the political and religious currents of his century.