Pierre Vidal - Naquet

Pierre Vidal-Naquet was born in 1930 in Paris to Jewish parents who were exterminated in Auschwitz in 1944. A globally recognized historian of antiquity and intellectual, he served as the director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and, alongside Jean-Pierre Vernant, directed the Center for Comparative Research on Ancient Societies in Paris. Beyond his scientific work, he was known for his political stance as an example of a militant intellectual, with a diverse body of written work and interventions in social issues. As he himself said: "I embraced history as others embraced religion; for me, engaging with history was not about dealing with something dead and distant, but about engaging with contemporary political issues; the modern historian must take a stand and oppose injustices." Less known in Greece was his writing on topics such as the torture carried out by the French army during the Algerian War ("L'Affaire Audin," 1958, "La Torture dans la Republique," 1972), the history and genocide of Jews during World War II ("Flavius Josephe ou du bon usage de la trahison," "Les Juifs, la memoire et le present," "Reflexions sur la genocide," "Les assassins de la memoire"), and May '68 ("Journal de la commune etudiante" - with Alain Schnapp). His numerous essays also include "La Raison d'Etat" (1962), "Genealogie de l'Europe, de la prehistorie au XXe siecle" (1994), as well as studies on topics related to Greek antiquity: "Mythe et tragedie dans la Grece ancienne" (1972, 1986), "Le Chasseur noir" (1981), "La Democratie grecque vue d'ailleurs" (1990), "La Guerre, la Grece et la paix" (1999), among others. He died of a stroke in a hospital in Nice on July 29, 2006, at the age of 76. Shortly before his death, while already hospitalized, he signed an appeal with other intellectuals for the cessation of the Israeli military invasion of Lebanon. In Greece, his works published include: "The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World" ("Livanis," 1983), "Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece," co-authored with Jean-Pierre Vernant ("I. Zacharopoulos," 1988), "The World of Homer" ("Exantas," reissued 2002), "Cleisthenes the Athenian" ("Evryalos," 1989), "Beyond Ancient Greek Democracy: Essays on Ancient and Modern Historiography" ("Alexandria," 1999), "Economy and Society in Ancient Greece" ("I. Zacharopoulos," 1998), "The Greeks, the Historians, Democracy: The Great Divergence" ("Patakis," 2002), "The Shattered Mirror: Athenian Tragedy and Politics" ("Olkos," 2003), "Atlantis: A Brief History of a Platonic Myth" ("Olkos," 2006), and "My Struggle, History" ("Olkos," 2007).