Robert Bonnaud (13 November 1929 – 22 January 2013) was a French

anti-colonialist Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolon ...

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 species; as well as the ...

and professor of history at the

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 1970. Paris Diderot merged with Pari ...

. In 1957, following the advice of his friend

Pierre Vidal-Naquet Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (; 23 July 193029 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1969. Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but was als ...

, he published in '' Esprit'' an article entitled ''La Paix des Nementchas'' (''Nementchas’ Peace''), where he denounced

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

he witnessed made by the

French army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, on 25-26 October 1956. In June 1961, he was arrested and jailed in Marseille's

Baumettes prison Baumettes Prison (also known as the Centre pénitentiaire de Marseille) is a prison in the 9th arrondissement of Marseille. Location The prison is named after the district of Les Baumettes. It is located at 239, chemin de Morgiou, in the 9th ar ...

as a supporter of the Algerian nationalists of the FLN; Hargreaves calls him "the leader of the

Jeanson network The Jeanson network () was a group of French leftwing militants led by Francis Jeanson who helped Algerian National Liberation Front agents operating in the French metropolitan territory during the Algerian War. They were mainly involved in carry ...

in the Marseille region". In June 1962, two months after the

Evian agreements Evian (, ; , stylized as evian) is a French brand that bottles mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. Evian is owned by Danone, a French multinational corporation. In addition to the miner ...

and the proclamation of Algeria's independence, Bonnaud was released but suspended from all teaching duties. That restriction was lifted two years later and he was formally pardoned in 1966. Bonnaud was born in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, France. He dedicated his life to the study of

universal history Universal history may refer to: * Universal history (genre), a literary genre **''Jami' al-tawarikh'', 14th-century work of literature and history, produced by the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia ** Universal History (Sale et al), ''Universal History'' ...

, and has been presented as a "meta-historian", a "philosopher of history", a theorist of the evolution of the

noosphere The noosphere (alternate spelling noösphere) is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the new s ...

.. He died, aged 83, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Bibliography

*''Victoires sur le temps. Essais comparatistes. Polybe le Grec et Siman Qian le Chinois'', Condeixa: La Ligne d'ombr

2007, *''La Cause du Sud – L'Algérie d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, la Palestine, les nations… Ecrits politiques 1956–2000'', Paris: L'Harmattan, 2001, . *''Histoire et historiens de 1900 à nos jours : l'histoire nouvelle. Au-delà de l'histoire'', Paris: Kimé, 2001 (review in ''Cairn'

*''Tournants et périodes ; essai sur les durées historiques et les années récentes'', Paris: Kimé, 2000. *''L'Histoire, le progrès, le communisme. Théories et confidences'', Paris: Kimé, 1997. *''Et pourtant elle tourne !'', Paris: Kimé, 1995. *''La morale et la raison'', Paris: Kimé, 1994. *''Les Succès de l'échec. Où va l'histoire?'', Paris: Arcantère, 1993. *''Les Alternances du progrès. I Une histoire sans préférences'', Paris: Kimé, 1992. *''Le Système de l'histoire'', Paris: Fayard, 1989. *''Les Tournants du XXe siècle – Progrès et régressions'', Paris: L'Harmattan, .

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