New Books Network: Bryan A. Banks, "Write to Return: Huguenot Refugees on the Frontiers of the French Enlightenment" (Nov 15, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this episode, the host welcomes Dr. Bryan A. Banks to discuss his book Write to Return: Huguenot Refugees on the Frontiers of the French Enlightenment (McGill-Queen's, 2024). The conversation explores the Huguenot refugee experience, their influence on European intellectual history, and how their story reshapes our understanding of Enlightenment, religious toleration, and the very idea of “the refugee.” Dr. Banks provides deep insights into his personal academic journey and how his research bridges early modern European history with contemporary questions about migration, identity, and belonging.

About the Author and His Research Path

[01:37–03:21]

• Dr. Bryan Banks introduces himself as a historian of early modern Europe, with a special interest in the French Revolution, religion, and transnational history.
• He describes his professional journey, from early academic interests to his current role as Associate Professor of History and interim dean at Columbus State University.
• Banks highlights his engagement with digital scholarship as co-founder of ageofrevolutions.com.
• His intellectual development was shaped by the transnational turn in historiography, focusing on how people and ideas cross borders.

Notable Quote:
"I've always been very interested in how peoples and ideas have moved across borders. And so the word frontiers in the title of my book, on the frontiers of the French Enlightenment is a very intentional term to show that to people." — Bryan A. Banks [02:54]

Why the Huguenots? A Personal and Academic Evolution

[03:53–13:42]

• Banks discusses how his Southern upbringing and religious studies background sparked his investigation into religion and the French Revolution.
• He comments on the overlooked nature of religious history in French Revolutionary studies due to Marxist historiography's focus on economics over religion.
• Initially set on studying French Judaism, Banks shifted focus after mentor Ralph Blaufarb pointed him to gaps in Huguenot historiography.
• He observed that most existing English-language studies portrayed Huguenots mainly as passive beneficiaries of Enlightenment thinkers advocating toleration.
• Guided by a new advisor, Darren McMahon, Banks expanded his dissertation to include various Protestant communities and their self-definitions within Enlightenment discourse.
• Over a decade, he reworked his dissertation into a more accessible, impact-driven book.
• The main thesis: Huguenots invented the idea of a “refugee collective” — a politically mobilized group focused on suffering and return.

Notable Quote:
"The main argument of my book is that Huguenots invented the idea of a refugee collective, a group of people we can call refugees who have been oppressed by a state, who focus on their suffering as a way to politicize their own agendas and to advocate to return to their ancestral lands." — Bryan A. Banks [11:54]

• Banks links his research to present-day debates on migration and reparations, highlighting how during the French Revolution, Huguenots worldwide could return to France and claim reparations.

Notable Moment:
Banks discusses writing during pivotal world events: George Floyd’s murder, the rise of reparations discourse, and global refugee crises — emphasizing the ongoing relevance of historical refugee identities.

Chapter 1: Demographic Realities and Catholic Arguments Against Toleration

[14:38–22:05]

• Dr. Banks provides background on the Huguenots: A Protestant group forced out of France, especially after 1685 (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes).
• The Huguenot diaspora spread globally — from Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England to as far as South Africa and Australia.
• He humorously compares their dispersal to glitter: “once you have a bunch of glitter in your hand, it will be everywhere” [15:49].
• The first chapter aims not just to “set the stage,” but to argue how Huguenot identities and Catholic criticisms became “self-fulfilling prophecies.”
• Catholic portrayals of Huguenots as greedy capitalists or republican subversives had a basis: blocked from other professions, many Huguenots did become merchants and sometimes embraced republican ideals.
• Banks connects this to Max Weber’s later “Protestant ethic,” showing the depth and persistence of these stereotypes.

Notable Quote:
"A lot of the arguments that anti Huguenots and pro Huguenot people are making during this time period, they have a tinge of reality to them, right? As all of the best representations… they have to align with certain stereotypes in one fashion or another." — Bryan A. Banks [18:33]

• Banks credits Ronald Schechter’s Obstinate Hebrews as a structural inspiration but wanted his own opening chapter to have a “powerful argument” and not just offer demographic background.

Chapter 2: Pierre Jurieu — Millenarianism and Political Theology

[23:11–28:30]

• Focuses on Pierre Jurieu, a Huguenot theologian, and his intertwined life with philosopher Pierre Bayle.
• Both were exiled and lived as “refugees” in the Netherlands; Jurieu was a professor and religious community leader, heavily involved in printed propaganda.
• Jurieu’s writing frames Huguenots as chosen people, likening their exile to the Israelites’ biblical wanderings; he combines this with a form of millenarianism, predicting Protestant triumph.

Notable Quote:
"Jurieu wants these individuals, these refugees, to remain Huguenots, to remain Calvinists, to have their faith be sustained through the persecutions. And so he regularly imagines them as the chosen people." — Bryan A. Banks [25:24]

• Jurieu believed the Glorious Revolution in England (1688) was a sign of divine favor for Protestants, and urged Huguenots never to abandon hope of return to France.
• While some of his arguments were not conventionally “Enlightened,” Jurieu still made rational appeals for toleration and the re-integration of Huguenots.

Chapter 3: Pierre Bayle — Redefining Tolerance and Private Faith

[28:54–34:05]

• Pierre Bayle, a complex figure shifting between Catholicism and Calvinism, focused on eliminating religious persecution and imagining pluralist societies.
• In direct response to Jurieu, Bayle’s Avis aux réfugiés (Advice to Refugees) counsels the Huguenots to avoid exceptionalism or republican rhetoric; instead, present themselves as loyal Frenchmen abroad.
• Bayle’s vision is proto-liberal: faith should be private, not public or political—a stance that anticipates later Enlightenment and revolutionary notions of religious tolerance.

Notable Quote:
"He wants to find a way for a multi-ethnic, a multi-religious community to be able to exist in harmony with one another." — Bryan A. Banks [29:41]

• Bayle’s ideas foreshadow the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — notably, its provision for freedom of opinion, including religion, “provided it does not disturb the safety and peace of everyday society.”
• Banks observes that during the French Revolution, legislators recalled both Jurieu and Bayle by name, preferring to “get a bunch of Bayles back” to avoid reigniting religious wars [33:47].

Chapters 4 & 5: From Refugeedom to National Belonging

[34:27–40:11]

• Focuses on Antoine Court and Paul Rabaut (and Rabaut Saint-Étienne): major figures who shaped the transition from a refugee identity to a broader French national identity.
• Antoine Court re-established the Calvinist church in France (“Church of the Desert”) and promoted the idea of French Protestants as patriots, not perpetual outsiders.
• Paul Rabaut and his son Rabaut Saint-Étienne advanced the rhetoric of suffering, publishing sentimental literature (notably Le Vieux Cévenol) to evoke empathy and drive arguments for inclusion.
• These sentimental appeals personalized Huguenot suffering, connecting the wounds of refugees to the wounds of the body politic.

Notable Quote:
"If we can do this to the French Huguenot people, then imagine what that's doing to the French society, societal order, or the French government, the French state." — Bryan A. Banks [37:46]

• Symbolically, Rabaut Saint-Étienne appears front and center in Jacques-Louis David’s painting of the Tennis Court Oath; a Protestant as founder of the new national order.
• This shift paved the way for French Protestants to be granted citizenship (1789) and reparations (1791); Napoleon later argued France’s “two legs” were Catholicism and Protestantism.
• Yet, the memory of exclusion, diaspora, and the need to assert belonging persisted into the 19th century.

Memorable Moments & Reflections

Personal Academic Journey (scattered through [03:53–13:42]):

• Candid reflections on research evolution, adviser changes, and publishing challenges.
• The interplay between past and present: global refugee crises and “refugeedom” as an enduring phenomenon.

Quote — Academic Humility
"I graduated in December of 2014 with a finished, not perfect, but finished dissertation. And it took me a decade to transform that dissertation into the book that now appears on bookshelves." — Bryan A. Banks [10:16]

Huguenots as “Glitter”
"Huguenots are kind of like glitter. Once you have a bunch of glitter in your hand, it will be everywhere, all over the place, in almost an inexplicable fashion." — Bryan A. Banks [15:49]

Selected Timestamps

• [01:37] — Author introduction & research background
• [03:53] — Genesis of Huguenot research focus
• [14:38] — Huguenot diaspora and Catholic arguments
• [23:11] — Pierre Jurieu and millenarian thinking
• [28:54] — Pierre Bayle on private faith & early pluralism
• [34:27] — Antoine Court, sentimentalism, and evolution of refugee identity

Conclusion

Bryan A. Banks’ Write to Return reveals the vital, overlooked role of Huguenot refugees in shaping Enlightenment thought about religious toleration, national belonging, and the “refugee” as a modern political category. Blending personal narrative, intellectual history, and contemporary resonance, this episode offers both rigorous analysis and human connection for anyone interested in European history, migration, and the continuing legacy of exile.