Podcast Summary: Le Cours de l'histoire (France Culture)

Episode Title: Sur le chemin de l’université, une histoire studieuse : Romantiques, socialistes et pas contents ! Étudiants dans le siècle des révolutions

Date: 16 septembre 2025
Host: Xavier Mauduit
Guests: Gilles Kandar (historien, président de la Société des études jaurésiennes), Antonin Dubois (maître de conférence en histoire contemporaine, Université de Lorraine)

1. Overview of the Episode’s Main Theme

This episode of Le Cours de l'histoire dives into the formative and turbulent role of students in the 19th and early 20th centuries, tracing their organizational, political and generational transformations during the “century of revolutions.” The discussion draws on the experiences of students in France, but also adopts a comparative European perspective, exploring their involvement in revolutionary movements, their association with socialism and liberalism, tensions with established institutions, and the birth of student organizations that would shape the modern university.

2. Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Stereotype and Reality of 19th-Century Students

• Literary and Social Archetypes (00:07)
  The show opens with playful references to Gustave Flaubert’s L’Éducation sentimentale and other novels, reconstructing the image of the student: often portrayed as socially restless, politically idealistic, and prone to debate, yet generally from a bourgeois background.

• Small Numbers, Big Impact (03:28 | Antonin Dubois):
  In the early 19th century, the student body is tiny compared to today — about 80,000 across Europe in the 1840s, exclusively male, with women barred from universities until later in the century. The classic figure of the “pauvre étudiant” persists, embodying tension between privilege and precariousness.

Revolutionary Engagement & Organization

• Moments of Political Agency (04:43 | Antonin Dubois):
  The 1848 revolutions mark a watershed as students mobilize not just in France but across Europe (Berlin, Vienna, Italy), often through the formation of semi-military “academic legions” or battalions. “La figure de l’étudiant engagé s’impose définitivement, mais ça reste un moment exceptionnel.”

• Limits of Organization (08:05 | Antonin Dubois):
  No truly political student organizations exist in the modern sense at that time due to heavy repression. Instead, informal, and often clandestine, groups emerge: “Corporations” with rituals in Germany, and “sociétés secrètes” in France, whose existence is as much feared by authorities as exaggerated by them.

Common Causes, National Differences

• Shared and Divergent Agendas (09:50 | Antonin Dubois):
  Students everywhere clamor for freedoms (expression, press, association), but, for instance, German and Italian students add demands for national unification:
  • “Une des grandes revendications de 1848 en Allemagne, chez les étudiants comme dans le mouvement révolutionnaire…c’est l’unification de l’Allemagne.”

Socialism and Student Movements

• The Early Socialist Question (11:12 | Xavier Mauduit):
  In the 1840s, socialism is an intellectual ferment, not yet an organized political force among students — more “aspiration” than party:

  • “Comme organisation politique, ça me semble prématuré…il faut plutôt voir ça comme une mouvance large de ce que nous, nous appelons aujourd’hui la gauche.”

• Students and Workers: Myths and Realities (17:39 | Xavier Mauduit):
  The alliance between students and workers is more an ideal than reality for most of the 19th century. Only later do small, highly politicized minorities of students truly engage with internationalist labor organizations.

  • “C’est surtout un souhait…c’est vraiment la pointe extrême.”

From Exception to Structure: The Rise of Associations

• The First International Student Congresses (19:40 | Antonin Dubois):
  Inspired by growing worker movements, students begin to organize international congresses from the 1860s in Belgium, albeit with limited reach, heralding more structured gatherings by the 1890s.

• The Generational Dynamic (21:23 | Host):
  Student activism is constantly renewed; each generation brings new issues, approaches, and, by necessity, reinvents its organizations. This drives the challenge of forming durable institutions.

Institutionalization of the Student Movement

• Birth of the AGE (30:37 | Antonin Dubois):
  The Association Générale des Étudiants (AGE) is founded in Nancy (1877), then in Lille, and finally in Paris (1883-84). These are provincial stories as much as Parisian and are linked to broader university reforms and efforts to make students pillars of the new regimes.

  • “Nancy…c’est l’université frontière, qui doit montrer la grandeur de la science et de l’université rénovée.”

• Politicization and Pluralism (32:01 | Host, 32:35 | Xavier Mauduit):
  “Socialismes” in the plural: student organizations are always diverse, unstable, and riven by ideological divides, echoing broader adult politics.

  • “C’est un monde divers…ça peut être très fluctuant.”

• Debates on Apoliticism vs. Republicanism (34:48 | Antonin Dubois):
  Even “apolitical” organizations often have a strong republican bias, reflecting the institutions that support them, while internal conflicts (e.g., during the Dreyfus Affair) demonstrate underlying political stakes.

The Move into the 20th Century: Party and Syndicate Links

• The Reluctance to Integrate Students into Party Structures (40:33 | Antonin Dubois):
  Mainstream socialist parties hesitate to formally integrate student or youth sections, fearing they will prioritize their own student interests. Students, however, increasingly join existing party structures or create new organizations across the political spectrum (e.g., Action Française, SFIO youth).

Violence, Identity, and Institutional Evolution

• Student Violence and Political Militancy (44:35 | Host and guests):
  From the Dreyfus Affair to the 1930s, episodes of student-fueled violence erupt, often along radical political lines, but these are exceptions rather than the rule.

• Expansion, Diversity, and the Entry of Women (47:24 | Antonin Dubois, 49:00 | Xavier Mauduit):
  Student numbers climb rapidly after 1880, further accelerated post-WWI; women enter in growing numbers, especially by the interwar years, and foreign students form a significant proportion.

  • “Un quart de jeunes filles en 1930…déjà 20 % d’étudiants étrangers en 1930.”

Student Syndicalism and the 20th Century

• Debate Over Syndicalism (51:49 | Xavier Mauduit, 54:03 | Antonin Dubois):
  The question of whether to organize students as workers (syndicalism) becomes salient in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but stalls due to legal and definitional barriers — students are not technically workers.

• Welfare and Institutional Change (54:31 | Antonin Dubois):
  By the 1930s, the state increasingly intervenes with social supports (“œuvres étudiantes”) such as cafeterias and dormitories. The transition to a more explicitly syndicalist structure comes with the creation of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF) after WWII.

3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Stereotype of the Student:
  “Voilà une figure incontournable des stéréotypes sociaux au siècle des révolutions… C’est cet étudiant qui refait le monde avec ses camarades et avec la ferme intention de jouer un rôle dans la société.” (00:07, Host)

• On Revolutionary Engagement:
  “La figure de l’étudiant engagé dans les affaires politiques s’impose définitivement… Mais ça reste un moment exceptionnel.” (04:43, Antonin Dubois)

• On the Divide between Students and Workers:
  “Les étudiants parisiens se battent contre le pouvoir sur les barricades de février 1848, mais certains contre les ouvriers en juin 1848…” (13:23, Antonin Dubois)

• Reciting the call to unity (Chanson de Pierre Dupont):
  “Le socialisme a deux ailes, l’étudiant et l’ouvrier. Marchons sans clairons ni cymbales aux conquêtes de l’avenir…” (14:33, Male Speaker)

• On the Challenge of Group Identity:
  “C’est très divers… Ce que sont les étudiants à un moment donné, l’année suivante, ce ne sont plus les mêmes.” (23:10, Antonin Dubois)

• On the Tension Around Youth Movements:
  “La méfiance, en fait, c’est de savoir s’ils vont rester dans la ligne ou pas… tous les partis vont être confrontés à ce problème.” (42:41, Xavier Mauduit)

• On the Entry of Women and Foreigners:
  “Un quart de jeunes filles en 1930 c’est plus la réalité du XIXe siècle… 20% d’étudiants étrangers en 1930.” (49:00, Xavier Mauduit)

• On University Syndicalism:
  “L’étudiant n’est pas défini comme un travailleur… Il ne peut pas entrer dans les clous statutairement de la loi 1884…” (54:03, Antonin Dubois)

4. Important Timestamps

• 00:07 — Playful scene setting & student caricature
• 01:36 — Literary evocation: L’Éducation sentimentale, Flaubert’s 1841 Paris
• 03:28 — The surprisingly small size and exclusive nature of the student body (Dubois)
• 04:43 — The role of students in the 1848 revolutions (Dubois)
• 08:05 — Forms of proto-organization and state repression (Dubois)
• 09:50 — Differences in revolutionary aims (German/Italian unification; Dubois)
• 11:12 — Defining “socialism” among students in the 1840s (Mauduit)
• 13:23 — February and June 1848: students’ shifting positions (Dubois)
• 14:33 — Chanson by Pierre Dupont; mythologies of student-worker alliances
• 19:40 — First international student congresses (Dubois)
• 21:23 — The generational churn and its impact on organizational continuity (Host, Dubois)
• 30:37 — Founding of the first AGEs, the provincial angle (Dubois)
• 32:35 — Diversity (“socialismes”), instability, and the importance of leadership (Mauduit)
• 34:48 — Republican consensus and “apolitisme républicain?” (Dubois, Mauduit)
• 40:33 — Rise of student groups aligned with parties, e.g. Action Française (Dubois)
• 44:35 — Political violence and the importance of student/professor alliances (Mauduit)
• 49:00 — The increased presence of women and foreign students (Mauduit)
• 51:49 — Relation (or lack thereof) between student and worker syndicates (Mauduit)
• 54:03 — Syndicalism debates and the emergence of student social supports (Dubois)
• 56:14 — Postwar transformation into the UNEF (Dubois)

5. Additional Memorable Personal Accounts

• Marius Moutet on militant student life (26:06):
  “J’ai commencé mon action politique en 1896 en étant adhérent aux étudiants socialistes que nous avons fondés précisément avec la plupart de ces étudiants russes… j’avais à cette époque une ardeur militante extrêmement vigoureuse.”

• Suzanne Vattier on anti-fascist organizing (49:39):
  “Il faut essayer d’empêcher le fascisme de venir en France, on peut faire une association. On commencera par les universités, puis on essaimera, on s’engagera… Ligue d’Action Universitaire, républicaine et socialiste, ce qui est un mot très large pour regrouper justement tous les démocrates…”

6. Thematic Takeaways

• Student activism is cyclical and generational:
  Each wave brings new forms of organization, new causes, and recurrent tensions between idealism and political assimilation.

• The long road to institutionalization:
  Students move from scattered, clandestine groups to recognized national associations (AGEs, then UNEF) through a process marked by both student militancy and intervention by the state.

• Intersection—but rarely fusion—of student and worker struggles:
  The idea of a unified “red front” is more hopeful anthem than sociological fact for most of the period.

• Political diversity and factionalism as constants:
  “Socialisms” and student politics are always plural, in flux, and closely tied to national context and generational turnover.

For further reading:

• Organiser les étudiants. Socio-histoire d’un groupe social (France-Allemagne, 1880-1914), Antonin Dubois (Éditions du Croquant)
• Socialismes et éducation. XVIIIe-XXe siècles, dir. Gilles Kandar, Guy Dreux, Christian Laval (Éditions du Bord de l’Eau)
• Archives from the Société des études jaurésiennes and GERME (Groupe d'études et de recherche sur les mouvements étudiants)

This summary captures the chronological and thematic thread of the episode, highlighting major insights, the flavor of historical debate, and the lived complexity of student organization from romantic past to syndicalist present.