• Historian Pierre Chaunu, 1923
  

A native of Belleville - sur - Meuse, “on the outskirts of the battle of Verdun” in his own words, and raised by his uncle and aunt, Pierre René Chaunu was deeply scarred by his own family tragedies, which explained the reasons for his conservatism. He was however a Republican and a Democratic, rejecting totally the far right ideologies that were widespread during his youth. He became a strong supporter of general Charles de Gaulle and of Gaullism in the aftermath of World War II.

Pierre Chaunu taught in the lycée of Bar - le - Duc in 1947, where he was a professor of history. He was admitted to the École des hautes études hispaniques in 1948 and stayed in Madrid and Seville until 1951. Strongly influenced by Fernand Braudel, who was his mentor, and the Annales School (where he was secretary to Lucien Febvre), Chaunu defended his dissertation on Séville et l’Atlantique in 1954. Nonetheless, Braudel denied him entry into the sixth section of the École practique des hautes études.

He was professor at the lycée at Vanves (1951 – 1956), part time lecturer at the faculté des lettres in Paris (1956), researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), elected member of CNRS after 1957 and of the Comité consultant des universités, and in 1959 chargé d’enseignement (assistant professor). In 1960, Chaunu became maitre de conferences (associate professor) in 1960 and full professor in 1962 at the University of Caen Lower Normandy, where he founded the Centre de recherche d’histoire quantitative in 1966. He was named professor of modern history at Paris - Sorbonne University in 1970.

Beginning in 1976, he was a member of the Conseil économique et social’s section for the adaptation of research technique and for economic information, and from 1980 he was a member of the historical section of the Conseil scientifique of CNRS. In 1982, he was elected as a member of the historical and geographical section of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He became a member of the Haut conseil a l’intégration (High Council on Immigration) in 1994. From 1988 to 1990, he was president of the Fédération nationale des syndicats autonomes de l’enseighment supérieur.

Until 2005, he directed the weekly broadcast of “Les Mardis de la mémoire” on Radio Courtoisie. From the early 1980s he had a column in “Le Figaro.” Pierre Chaunu converted to Protestantism as an adult (having previously been a Roman Catholic). He was a lay preacher in the temple at Courseulles - sur - Mer (Reformed Church of France) and a committee member of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français. He was also the father of six children, including the illustrator and cartoonist Emmanuel Chaunu (born in 1966). He was a commander of the Légion d’honneur.

Chaunu died at Caen on 22 October 2009, aged 86.

The central thesis of several of his works, including “La Peste blanche”, is that the contemporary West is committing suicide because of demographic decline and low birth rate; hence the subtitle, “How can the suicide of the West be avoided?” In evoking the word “plague,” the historian very explicitly recalled the terrible epidemic that decimated the European population in the thirteenth century. He equally echoed the study of Latin America that made his reputation: South America experienced a steep drop in population at the arrival of the Spanish. From 80 million, the population went to 10 million in the span of half a century. Thus, according to Chaunu, the demographic index became a prime indicator to understand the rise and fall of civilizations. The historian maintained that population growth could reverse itself rapidly, to the point of resulting in the phenomena of near disappearance of some peoples.

Chaunu had an important impact on historiography, whether with regard to quantitative history, his studies of Latin America, or the social and religious history of France during the Ancien Régime.