I know Christine Kelly and Marc Menant well, and even very well, because I have the immense pleasure of working with them from Monday to Thursday on CNews, as part of the show Faced with information.
This happy duo, because it is one, also conducted a program on the same channel dedicated to the great destinies which made history, and had the good idea of bringing together their exchanges in a book which has just been released. published by Plon.
The title: These destinies which made history. Their challenge: to revive the great characters without whom the history of the world would not have been the same. The method is the right one: too often, for a century, academic history has wanted to banish great people, as if history, over the long term, was written without them. It was a matter of highlighting major trends, social, economic, technological – as if politics were only a superficial element in the destiny of societies and civilizations, a conviction shared both by the Annals and pre-Marxism. -Leninist.
Adventure
It was both a methodological error and a philosophical error.
An error in method, because politics really weighs on the destiny of men: a history of the 20th centurye century which considers it to be a negligible quantity would be aberrant. It would become basically unintelligible.
A philosophical error, because politics is the place of human freedom, where man invents himself collectively and seeks to influence the course of things.
Christine Kelly and Marc Menant do not make this mistake: they do not claim the role of academic historians, obviously, but approach history in a good way, placing emphasis on great individuals – without them, the history of world would have been different. They thus reveal to us the best part of humankind.
They tell us about Joan of Arc and Napoleon Bonaparte, for example. The first liberated its people, the second gave birth in many respects to post-revolutionary Europe.
But they also tell us about lives which, without being political in the literal sense, represent an exemplary way of getting through existence. This is the meaning of the chapter devoted to Saint-Exupéry, who lived his life up to the ideals he claimed.
Nor do they forget the great artists who have left an indelible mark in the history of human genius: I am thinking here of the chapter on Beethoven as well as that on Victor Hugo – we will also add that on La Fontaine, to whom the French language that our two authors love so much owes so much.
The great explorers have their place: Christopher Columbus also sees his story told, and that is so much the better, in an era which has decided to curse him and the European expansion of which he was the symbol.
Freedom
Kelly and Menant tell us the story and thus bring it to life. They give it back its colors, allow us to inhabit it mentally, and convince us that present times can also lend themselves to great destinies.
The human spirit quivers, jumps, and even in times of low historical intensity, it is possible to live life with panache. We will do this all the more when we know that in other times, the most improbable individuals were able to transfigure their existence and thus change the face of the world.
I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that Christine Kelly and Marc Menant wrote their work in the ink of freedom.
This beautiful book, magnificently illustrated, let us take the trouble to say it, will please both those who love the story of illustrious lives as well as the honest man who wants to immerse himself in the world of great destinies with two joyful guides, who know how to make people love their subject, and who will make everyone want to know more.
And isn’t the teacher who knew how to awaken the curiosity of his students the best one could imagine? We will thank our two teachers, and we will read them with happiness.