Emmanuel Todd (, born 16 May 1951) is a French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...

, demographer, sociologist and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. His research examines the different family structures around the world and their relationship with beliefs, ideologies, political systems, and historical events. He has also published a number of political

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

, which have received broad coverage in France.

Life and works

Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye,

Yvelines Yvelines () is a Departments of France, department in the western part of the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.fr) and Anne-Marie Nizan. Todd's paternal grandfather, Julius Oblatt, was of Austrian Jewish background, and his paternal grandmother, Helen Todd, was the illegitimate daughter of British magazine editor

Dorothy Todd Dorothy Todd (1883–1966) was a British magazine editor. During her time as editor of British ''Vogue'' from 1922–1926, Todd altered the magazine’s interest and content from fashion to a broader inclusion of modernist literature and art. Un ...

. Emmanuel Todd's maternal grandfather was the writer

Paul Nizan Paul-Yves Nizan (; 7 February 1905 – 23 May 1940) was a French philosopher and writer. He was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire and studied in Paris where he befriended fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre at the Lycée Henri IV. He became a member of ...

. The historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, who pioneered

microhistory Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires ...

, was a friend of the family and gave him his first history book. Aged 10, Todd wanted to become an

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

. He studied at the '' Lycée international de Saint-Germain-en-Laye'', where he was a member of the Communist Youth. He then studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

at the

Paris Institute of Political Studies , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university'' Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

and went on to prepare a Ph.D. in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, with Peter Laslett. In 1976 he defended his doctoral thesis on ''Seven peasant communities in pre-industrial Europe. A comparative study of French, Italian and Swedish rural parishes (18th and early 19th century)''. Todd attracted attention in 1976 when, at age 25, he predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, based on indicators such as increasing

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...

rates: ' (The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere). He then worked for a time in the literary service of ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' daily, then returned to research, working on the hypothesis of a determination of ideologies and religious or political beliefs by familial systems (''Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure & Social System'', 1983). He then wrote, among other books, ''The Invention of Europe'' (1990) and ''The Fate of Immigrants'' (1994), in which he defended the "French model" of integration of immigrants. Emmanuel Todd-Scan-090129-0012c

Todd was opposed to the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the ...

in the 1992 referendum. In 1995, he wrote a memo for the Fondation Saint-Simon, which became famous — the media thereafter attributed to him the paternity of the expression "'" (social crack or social gap), used by

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a Politics of France, French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to ...

during the 1995 electoral campaign in order to distinguish himself from his rival

Édouard Balladur Édouard Balladur (; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 17 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, c ...

. Todd, however, has rejected this paternity,Pour Todd, pas de "choc" mais un "rendez-vous des civilisations"
'' Rue 89'', 19 September 2007 and attributed the expression to Marcel Gauchet. In '' After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order'' (2001), Todd claims that many indices that he has examined (economic, demographic and ideological) show both that the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

has outlived its status as sole

superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural ...

, and that much of the rest of the world is becoming "modern" (declining birth rates etc.) far more rapidly than predicted. Controversially, he proposes that many US foreign policy moves are designed to mask what he sees as the redundancy of the United States. In his analysis, Putin's Russia emerges as probably a more trustworthy partner in today's world than the US. The book has been much read although many of its more original ideas have been received with scepticism. In spite of his opposition to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, Todd expressed himself in favour of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in the referendum of 2005, advocating a protectionist framework at the European level for the future policies of the Union. In ''A Convergence of Civilizations: The Transformation of Muslim Societies Around the World '' (2007), written with fellow demographist Youssef Courbage, Todd criticized

Samuel P. Huntington Samuel Phillips Huntington (April 18, 1927December 24, 2008) was an American political scientist, adviser, and academic. He spent more than half a century at Harvard University, where he was director of Harvard's Center for International Affairs ...

's thesis of a clash of civilizations, pointing instead to indices of a convergence in styles of life and in values among civilisations. Throughout much of this time he was working on "The Origins of Family Systems", which he has described as "his life's work". The first volume was published in 2011. He describes how in researching the book he has, over 40 years, "read more anthropology monographs than most anthropologists." He has described the book as "completed", with only the stage of writing up its second and final volume remaining. His 2015 essay ''Qui est Charlie? Sociologie d'une crise religieuse'' ("Who is Charlie? Sociology of a Religious Crisis") became his most controversial and his most popular essay. In the essay, Todd claims that the 11 January 2015 marches to show solidarity with the ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular ...

'' staff who had been massacred by Muslim terrorists several days before were an expression not of French liberal values but of racist and reactionary currents in French society. The work has been accused by politicians of a seeming willingness to look aside from the reality of Islamist terrorism while some readers accuse it of a reliance on unsupported a priori arguments while failing to consider other, more relevant political factors. The book aroused copious and emotional hostility, including a critique by the

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister i ...

, Manuel Valls. Todd claims to have written quickly, partly out of frustration and not in a purely academic style, though he defends his arguments' basis in his decades of French demographic research.

Criticism

The claim that the Empire is American is questioned such as by

Michael Hardt Michael Hardt (born 1960) is an American political philosopher and literary theorist. Hardt is best known for his book ''Empire'', which was co-written with Antonio Negri. Hardt and Negri suggest that several forces which they see as domin ...

and

Antonio Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political p ...

in their ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

''. They claim that the origins of the Empire are in Europe, not in the United States, based on the emigration of scientists from Europe to the United States, especially from Austria, during and around the Second World War.

Quotes

In popular culture

There is an implicit but clear reference to ''The Final Fall'' published in 1976, and its author, in Robert Littell's book '' The Company: A Novel of the CIA'', a fiction, but with heavy historical inputs, on the American intelligence agency. In it, two analysts discuss in 1983 forecasts of the Soviet Union when from the outside, it was seen as a solid entity:

"The Soviet Union," one of the independent economists was arguing, "is an Upper Volta with rockets." He waved a pamphlet in the air. "A French analyst has documented this. The number of women who die in childbirth in the Soviet Union has been decreasing since the Bolshevik Revolution. Suddenly, in the early seventies, the statistic bottomed out and then started to get worse each year until the Russians finally grasped how revealing this statistic was and stopped reporting it." — "What in God's name does a statistic about the number of women who die in childbirth have to do with analyzing Soviet military spending?" a Company analyst snarled across the table. — "If you people knew how to interpret statistics, you'd know that everything is related—"

Books

With an English translation

*
The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere
', 1979, Karz Publishers, translated by John Waggoner (''La chute finale: Essai sur la décomposition de la sphère Soviétique'', 1976) * ''The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure & Social Systems'', 1985, Blackwell Publishers, translated by David Garrioch (''La Troisième planète'', 1983) * ''The Causes of Progress: Culture, Authority, and Change'', 1987, Blackwell Publishers, translated by Richard Boulind (''L'enfance du monde'', 1984) * ''The Making of Modern France: Ideology, Politics and Culture'', 1991, Blackwell Publishers, translated by Anthony C. Forster (''La Nouvelle France'', 1988) * '' After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order'', 2003, Columbia University Press, translated by Christopher Jon Delogu, foreword by

Michael Lind Michael Lind (born April 23, 1962) is an American writer and academic. He has explained and defended the tradition of American democratic nationalism in a number of books, beginning with '' The Next American Nation'' (1995). He is currently a pro ...

(''Après l’Empire : Essai sur la décomposition du système américain'', 2001) * ''A Convergence of Civilizations: The Transformation of Muslim Societies Around the World'' with Youssef Courbage, 2007, Columbia University Press, translated by George Holoch (''Le Rendez-vous des civilisations'', 2007) * ''Who is Charlie? Xenophobia and the New Middle Class'', 2015, Polity Press, translated by Andrew Brown (''Qui est Charlie? Sociologie d'une crise religieuse'', 2015) * ''Lineages of Modernity: A History of Humanity from the Stone Age to Homo Americanus'', 2019, Polity Press, commentary from renowned anthropologist and historian

Alan Macfarlane Alan Donald James Macfarlane (born 20 December 1941 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India) is an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles o ...

: ''"Emmanuel Todd is an internationally known scholar whose work on the development and influence of family systems around the world has challenged many preconceptions. This is a bold, iconoclastic, wide-ranging study, marshalling a great deal of material from history, anthropology, demography and other disciplines. It is written from an unusual angle and rightly challenges the primacy of economic forces, emphasizing instead the role of family systems, ideology, education and culture in the shaping of human history. There is much to learn from this work."'' and

: ''""To the study of the United States, the Soviet Union and France, Emmanuel Todd has brought a unique combination of empirical rigor and humanist insight. Now, in ''Lineages of Modernity'', this great thinker has found his greatest subject."'' (''Où en sommes-nous ? Une esquisse de l'histoire humaine'', 2017)

Without an English translation

* ''The Fool And The Proletariat (Le Fou et le Prolétaire)'', Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1979. On the pre-1914 elites of Europe, which led to World War I and totalitarianism. * ''The Invention Of France (L'Invention de la France)'', with Hervé Le Bras ( fr), Éditions Pluriel-Hachettes, Paris, 1981. * ''The Invention of Europe (L'invention de l'Europe)'', coll. « L'Histoire immédiate », 1990. * ''The Fate estinyof Immigrants (Le destin des immigrés)'', Paris, Éditions Le Seuil, 1994. * ''The Economic Illusion: Essay on the stagnation of developed societies (L'illusion économique. Essai sur la stagnation des sociétés développées)'', Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1998. * ''The Diversity Of The World: Family and Modernity (La Diversité du monde : Famille et modernité)'', Éditions Le Seuil, coll. « L'histoire immédiate », Paris, 1999. * ''After Democracy (Après la démocratie)'', Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 2008. * ''Allah is not to blame! (Allah n'y est pour rien !)'', Paris, Éditions Le Publieur, coll. arretsurimages.net, 2011. * ''The Origin Of Family Systems, Volume One: Eurasia (L'origine des systèmes familiaux, Tome 1: L'Eurasie)'', Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 2011, of which the translated introduction is already availabl
online
* ''The French Mystery (Le mystère français)'', with Hervé Le Bras ( fr), Paris, Éditions Le Seuil, coll. « La République des idées », 2013.

Footnotes

External links

Protectionism and Democracy, Interview with Emmanuel Todd, by Karim Emile Bitar (French)
published in L'ENA hors les murs, the ENA alumni magazine - July 12, 2009
"The Conceited Empire", interview with Martin A. Senn & Felix Lautenschlager for ''The New Zuricher''
- July 26, 2003
Interview with Emmanuel Todd on 'After the Empire', by Michael Monninger
Prospect Magazine - June 20, 2003
"Emmanuel Todd: The Specter of a Soviet-Style Crisis"
translation of an interview with

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

by Marie-Laure Germon and Alexis Lacroix - September 12, 2005
Emmanuel Todd interview on the 'French riots'
translation o

with

by Raphaëlle Bacqué, Jean-Michel Dumay and Sophie Gherardi - November 29, 2005
Charlie Rose, interview of Emmanuel Todd
- April 29, 2003
''« @ux sources d'Emmanuel Todd - Quelles sont les sources d'un prophète ? »'' (in French)
Arrêt sur images - February 24, 2012
Interview with Oliver Berruyer, ''Germany’s Fast Hold on the European Continent'' - September 1, 2014
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20180318191816/http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201611180070.html Emmanuel Todd: "Trump was speaking the truth about state of U.S. society" - November 18, 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Emmanuel 1951 births 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge French anthropologists French demographers French male non-fiction writers French people of Austrian-Jewish descent French political scientists French sociologists Living people People from Saint-Germain-en-Laye Sciences Po alumni