Pierre Daunou (1761-1840)

By going through this political and intellectual biography of Pierre Daunou (1761-1840), the reader discovers a legislator and a great theorist of history and education placed at the heart of revolutionary upheavals. Attached "to the feeling of freedom and the instinct of the Republic", Daunou acted as a deputy of the National Convention, president of the Council of Five-hundred under the Directory, then deputy of Finistère under the Restoration. His ideas on the Republic were put at the service of the Constitution of 1795 of which he was the main designer. His intellectual heritage is equally impressive. In addition to his decisive role in the foundation and organization of the Institut de France, He is credited with a course in historical studies taught at the Collège de France for more than twenty years and major philosophical writings aimed at understanding the workings of the human mind and the decisive role of teaching in intellectual formation. Chief Curator of the Panthéon Library, he took to heart the organization of the National Archives from 1804. By following this immense scholar, this fertile thinker, this talented writer, the reader enters into the fabric of history through the articulation of discourses and practices.