Ernest Granger
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Ernest Granger | |
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Born | |
Died | May 21, 1914 | (aged 70)
Resting place | Macé |
Occupation | Politician |
Ernest Granger (20 April 1844 – 21 May 1914) was a French politician, a veteran of the
Early life: Blanquism under the Second Empire
Ernest Henri Granger was born in Mortagne, into a lower-middle-class family of peasant stock. He was educated at the Lycée in Versailles and studied law before breaking off his studies to devote himself to political activism. In 1866 he was imprisoned for the first time for
The Paris Commune
In 1870–1871, Granger was a co-editor and contributor of the Blanquist journal La Patrie en Danger. He also commanded the 159th battalion of the National Guard and attempted to rally the French to resist the German army at all costs. On October 31, Granger and his battalion participated in an armed occupation of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. Along with other National Guard commanders who had participated in the insurrection, Granger was relieved of command, but his soldiers re-elected him, and although he was not recognised by the Versailles government, he resumed command of the 159th battalion. Granger participated in the Paris Commune as one of the representatives of the Blanquist faction. He was given the task of finding and liberating Blanqui (whose location was kept secret by the government), but before he could complete the mission, the Paris Commune was suppressed.
Exile and return: Blanquist politics between socialism and nationalism
Granger escaped England, remaining in exile in London until an amnesty enabled him to return to France. In the late 1870s and 1880s he was one of the principal editors of the Blanquist journal Ni Dieu ni Maître (Neither God nor Master). (He also contributed to L'Homme Libre and, after the death of Émile Eudes in 1888, replaced him as editor-in-chief of Le Cri du Peuple.) The Blanquists launched a campaign for the release of their aged and infirm leader, and in 1879, they managed to have Blanqui elected to the National Assembly as deputy for Bordeaux. Because Blanqui was still in prison, the election was annulled, but in 1880 he was released. After his release, Blanqui came to live with Granger and died at his home in 1881.
Shortly after Blanqui's death, Granger, together with
Boulangism and the split in Blanquism
The conflict between Vaillantists and Grangerites brewed for some time in the Central Revolutionary Committee. It was intensified by the rise of General
For a while, the Blanquists papered over their differences by adopting a policy of official neutrality: the quarrel between Boulangists and
Nationalism and antisemitism
In the late 1880s, Granger contributed to the journal L'Intransigeant. In 1889 Granger's committee entered into an electoral alliance with the Boulangists. They divided the electoral districts between them, and Granger was elected to the National Assembly for the
Granger did not live to witness the event which led to an eruption of nationalism in France and across Europe, torpedoing the official internationalism and anti-militarism of the
Further reading
- Biographies des Deputés de l'Assemblée Nationale, 1889-1940. Online at: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/biographies/1889-1940/Lettre_G/Pages%20de%20G_2.pdf
- Hutton, P.H., The Cult of the Revolutionary Tradition: The Blanquists in French Politics, 1864-1893. Berkeley, 1981.
- Mazgaj, P., 'The Origins of the French Radical Right: A Historiographic Essay.' French Historical Studies 1987.
- E. Granger Papers, ca. 1865-1895. Held at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
Notes
- ^ Blanqui's antisemitism was confined to occasional asides about 'shylocks' and did not amount to a developed ideological programme; it was typical of the sort of prejudice that was quite general at the time. Tridon, however, had written a book, Le Molochime juif: Études critiques et philosophiques (1884), which was published 13 years after his death and became one of the classics of French antisemitism. Drumont himself claimed to have been influenced by Tridon.