René Grousset was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 historian

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 study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, curator of both the Cernuschi and Guimet Museum

Guimet Museum

The Guimet Museum is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France...

s in Paris, and a member of the prestigious Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

. He wrote several major works on Asiatic

Asian people

Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

 and Oriental civilizations, with his two most important works being History of the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

(1934-1936) and The Empire of the Steppes, a History of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

(1939), both of which were considered standard references on the subject.

Biography

He was born in Aubais

Aubais

Aubais is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.The little town is in an about 20 km distance from Nîmes and Aigues-Mortes. The recreation area of La Grande-Motte is reachable also in a distance of about 20 km.- History :...

, Gard

Gard

Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...

 in 1885.

Having graduated from the University of Montpellier

University of Montpellier

The University of Montpellier was a French university in Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. Its present-day successor universities are the University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier 2 University and Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III.-History:The university...

 with a degree in history, he began his distinguished career soon afterward. He served in the French army

French Army

The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In 1925, Grousset was appointed adjunct conservator of the Musée Guimet in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and secretary of the Journal asiatique

Journal asiatique

The Journal asiatique is a French academic journal founded in 1822 by the Société Asiatique with the aim of promoting Orientalism and Oriental studies. The Journal asiatique has been published without interruption since 1822. It is presently published twice a year by the French National Centre for...

. By 1930 he had published five major works on Asiatic and Oriental civilizations. In 1933 he was appointed director

Technical director

The Technical Director or Technical Manager is usually a senior technical person within a software company, film studio, theatrical company or television studio...

 of the Cernuschi Museum in Paris and curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 of its Asiatic art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 collections. He wrote a major work on the Chinese buddhist medieval pilgrim Xuanzang

Xuanzang

Xuanzang was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period...

, particularly emphasising the importance of his visit to the northern Indian Buddhist university of Nalanda

Nalanda

Nālandā is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India.The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from the fifth or sixth century CE to 1197 CE. It has been called "one of the...

.

Before the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Grousset had published his two most important works, Histoire des Croisades (1934-1936) and L'Empire des Steppes (1939). Dismissed from his museum posts by the Vichy government, he continued his research privately and published three volumes on China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and the Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 during the war. Following the liberation of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, he resumed his curatorship of the Cernuschi Museum and in addition was appointed curator of the Guimet Museum

Guimet Museum

The Guimet Museum is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France...

. In 1946, Grousset was made a member of the French Academy. Between 1946 and 1949, he published four final works, concentrating on Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 and the Near East

Near East

The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...

.

In 1952, Grousset died at the age of 67 in Paris.

Works

1922 - Histoire de l'Asie http://books.google.com/books?id=JS0BAAAAMAAJ&q=L%27empire+des+steppes,+Attila,+Genghis-Khan,+Tamerlan&dq=L%27empire+des+steppes,+Attila,+Genghis-Khan,+Tamerlan&lr=&client=firefox-a&source=gbs_similarbooks_r&cad=3_1&pgis=1, 4 vol., Paris: G. Crès & cie. OCLC 4594662

1923 - Histoire de la philosophie orientale

1924 - Le réveil de l'Asie

1926 - L'épopée des Croisades

1928 - La Grèce et l'Orient, des guerres médiques à la conquête romaine

1929 - Histoire de l'Extrême-Orient

1929 - Sur les traces de Bouddha, tableau du VIIe siècle bouddhique

In the Footsteps of the Buddha. JA Underwood (trans) Orion Press. New York (1971)

1929-1930 - Les civilisations de l'Orient, 4 vol.

1931 - Les philosophies indiennes

1934-1936 - Histoire des Croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem http://books.google.com/books?id=EA9eNQAACAAJ&dq=Histoire+des+croisades+et+du+royaume+franc+de+J%C3%A9rusalem&lr=&client=firefox-a, 3 vol. Paris: Plon. OCLC 37267632

1936 - L'art de l'Extrême Orient : paysages, fleurs, animaux

1937 - De Venise à Pékin au XIVe siècle : Odoric de Pordenone (with H. Demoulin-Bernard)

1939 - Les sculptures des Indes et de la Chine

1939 - L'empire des steppes : Attila, Gengis-Khan, Tamerlan http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/grousset_rene/empire_des_steppes/grousset_steppes.pdf Paris: Editions Payot. OCLC 220712631

The Empire of the Steppes. http://books.google.com/books?id=CHzGvqRbV_IC&client=firefox-a (tr., Naomi Walford). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press

Rutgers University Press

Rutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...

. (1970) 10-ISBN 0-813-51304-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-813-51304-1; OCLC 90972.

1941 - L'empire mongol

1941 - L'Asie orientale, des origines au XVe siècle (with J. Auboyer et J. Buhot)

1942 - Histoire de Chine

1944 - Le conquérant du monde : vie de Gengis-Khan

1945 - L'Europe orientale de 1081 à 1453 (with C. DIehl, R. Guilland et L. Oeconomos)

1946 - L'empire du Levant : histoire de la question d'Orient

1946 - Bilan de l'histoire

1947 - Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071 http://books.google.com/books?id=CYgNAAAAIAAJ&q=Histoire+des+Histoire+de+l%27Arm%C3%A9nie:+des+origines+%C3%A0+1071&dq=Histoire+des+Histoire+de+l%27Arm%C3%A9nie:+des+origines+%C3%A0+1071&lr=&client=firefox-a&pgis=1 Paris: Payot. OCLC 3084562

1948 - De la Grèce à la Chine

1949 - Figures de proue

1950 - Les premières civilisations (collective work)

1950 - De l'Inde au Cambodge et à Java (with J. Auboyer)

1951 - De la Chine au Japon