Albert Malet (historian)

Albert Malet (3 May 1864, Clermont-Ferrand – 25 September 1915, Battle of Thélus, Pas de Calais) was a French historian and author of scholarly textbooks, killed during the First World War. [1]

Career

Malet failed the entrance exam at Saint-Cyr, However, in 1889 he passed the Aggregation of History and Geography.[2]

Teacher

Cour d'Honneur
Cour d'Honneur (Main Courtyard) of Lycée Louis-le-Grand where Malet taught

Malet began teaching in Paris as “professeur agrégé d'histoire” (Associate Professor of History) at the lycée Voltaire in 1897.[3]

Malet was one of the founding members and served as Secretary and on the Board of the Société d’Histoire de la Révolution in 1904.[4]

In 1914, Malet became a teacher at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.[5]

In French high schools “exceptional importance [was] given to the teaching of history” courses which were required. The courses were “taught by specialized teachers, who numbered 620 in 1914.”[6] Malet was one of this number. However, he not only taught history he wrote about history.

Writer
Malet contributed to the Histoire Générale du I’VE siècle à nos jours (General History of the Fourth Century to the Present Day) in twelve volumes, edited by Ernest Lavisse and published from 1893 to 1904.[7]

Malet wrote many history texts for the Hachette Book Group.[8] One of Malet’s texts was considered the “classic text” on French history. The classic text was Nouvelle histoire de France: l'Antiquité, le Moyen âge, les Temps modernes, la Révolution, l'Empire, la France contemporaine (New history of France: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times, the Revolution, the Empire, contemporary France).

After the World War I and Malet’s death in it, Jules Isaac expanded and updated Malet’s history by “adding a chapter of 100 pages as a separate volume on the history of the war.”[9] Malet was named as the coauthor of Isaac’s revision.[10] To reflect Isaac’s addition, the title of the text was changed to Nouvelle histoire de France: l'Antiquité, le Moyen âge, les Temps modernes, la Révolution, l'Empire, la France contemporaine, la Grande Guerre (New history of France: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times, the Revolution, the Empire, contemporary France, the Great War).

Malet’s other history texts are named Malet, Albert (1864-1915) in French and can be translated into English by Google.

World War I

French soldiers in World War I
French soldiers in World War I

Malet was “above the age of active duty” to be mobilized but he volunteered when the Great War began in 1914 to be mobilised, he joined up as a volunteer.[11] Malet has been described as a “patriotic revanchard” (revanchist).[12]

Killed in action in 1915
In the war, Malet served as a lieutenant in the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the Reserve 163rd Infantry Regiment.[13] He was killed in the Artois offensive, in making an attack on Thélus on 25 September 1915.[14]

The battle on September 25, 1915, was a “marked success.” Two men stood out for their “acts of bravery.” One was Lieutenant Malet.[15]

Works

Malet published history text books for use in upper primary and secondary French schools. All of his works are listed on Malet, Albert (1864-1915).

Further reading

André Ruellan, Albert Malet (Rouen: Ed. B.D.S., 1974).

References

  1. “Albert Malet” and Judith Rice, “Jules Isaac & Pope Benedict XV.” and La Epoca Contemporanea.1ª Parte 1789-1815.
  2. La Epoca Contemporanea.1ª Parte 1789-1815.
  3. Ministère de l'éducation nationale, Bulletin officiel, Volume 72 (1903), 571. and Assemblee Generale, Volumes 13-15 (Société d'histoire contemporaine, Paris, 1903), 42.
  4. General Assembly meeting, Volumes 13-15 (Society for Contemporary History, Paris, 1903), 3.
  5. La Epoca Contemporanea.1ª Parte 1789-1815.
  6. Jay Winter and Antoine Prost, The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 9.
  7. LAVISSE RAMBAUD, Histoire Générale du I’VE siècle à nos jours.
  8. Judith Rice, “Jules Isaac & Pope Benedict XV.”
  9. Jay Winter and Antoine Prost, The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 9, 82.
  10. Judith Rice, “Jules Isaac & Pope Benedict XV.”
  11. Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Annette Becker, France and the Great War (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 35.
  12. Eugen Joseph Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996). 21.
  13. GUERRE DE - 1914-1918 HISTORIQUE DU 163e Régi d'Infant par Le Sous-Lieutenant de réserve ASTRUC du 163e Régiment d'Infanterie on in English WAR 1914-1918 HISTORY of 163rd REGIM by The Lieutenant of ASTRUC Reserve 163rd Infantry Regiment.
  14. Eugen Joseph Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996). 21. and La Epoca Contemporanea.1ª Parte 1789-1815.
  15. Henry Charles Lavauzelle, editor, History 63 e Infantry Military(1920), 8. Based on Google translation. Retrieved September 5, 2016.

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