Jaurès, Jean

(1854–1914)

   A leading socialist before World War I, Jaurès acknowledged the value of Marxism but without committing himself to Marxism as such. He embraced class struggle and the goal of socialism, seeking to combine historical materialism with Hegelian idealism. Born in Castres, France, he was both a politician and a scholar. As the former he represented his native region, the Tarn, in the Chamber of Deputies from 1885 to 1887, 1893 to 1898 and 1902 to his murder by a nationalist fanatic aggrieved by his antiwar position in 1914. Jaurès was active in the Second International and in the political grouping that became the French Socialist Party. He founded L’Humanité, which later became the organ of the French Communist Party. As a scholar he produced several books, most notably a history of socialism, Histoire Socialiste, 1789–1900 (1908).