Robert Aron

Robert Aron (; ; 25 May 1898 – 19 April 1975) was a French historian and writer who wrote several books on politics and European history.

Early life and career Robert Aron was born in Le Vésinet on 25 May 1898 to an upper-class Jewish family from eastern France. :132 He attended the Lycée Condorcet and served in the French Army during World War I. He was wounded in action in 1918.

Interwar Period In 1922, while at university studying for a degree in Languages and Classics, Aron was the President of the Cercle International d'Etudiants. Aron primarily worked as a producer for the theatre, which mounted four productions from 1926-1928. For Aron, the work of the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, 'provoked the only dangerous and disturbances of a Surrealist nature' in the last two years, and were almost 'Revolutionary disturbances'. The original French edition was over 700 pages and relied mainly on the testimonies of eye-witnesses and on the records of the High Court. It was the standard work of reference on Vichy for more than fifteen years and the original edition sold 53,000 copies between 1954 and 1981. Aron argued that in Philippe Pétain's view "the armistice was not and could not be anything more than a pause, allowing France to subsist temporarily while awaiting the outcome of the war between England and the Axis...for Laval, the armistice was supposed to have paved the way for a reversal of alliances". Aron therefore argued that there were "two Vichy's", Pétain's and Laval's. He also claimed that the Vichy government played a "double game" between the Allies and the Axis by holding secret talks with the Allies while officially collaborating. Charles de Gaulle wrote to Aron disputing this figure, citing 10,000 as the more accurate estimate.

His Histoire de la Libération (1959, "History of the Liberation") was translated into English as De Gaulle Before Paris (trans. Humphrey Hare, Putnam 1962) and he also wrote the Histoire de l'Epuration (1967–1975, "History of the Purges").

An agnostic during the 1930s, Aron returned to his Jewish faith after 1945 and participated in formal Jewish-Christian dialogue. His book The God of the Beginnings (New York: Morrow, 1966) explores the origins of religion and its development in the traditions of the Old Testament (e.g., Abraham, Moses, the Sinai Covenant). He also wrote books about Jesus's identity as a Jew, including Jesus of Nazareth: The Hidden Years (New York: Morrow, 1962), and The Jewish Jesus (New York Maryknoll, 1971). In 1974, he was elected a member of the Académie française (number 650) but he died suddenly of a heart attack on 19 April 1975, before he was able to attend his public acceptance ceremony.

His final work, Léopold III ou le choix impossible ("Leopold III or the Impossible Choice"), looked at the history of the Belgian monarch Leopold III and the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 and was published posthumously in 1977.