Emmanuel Todd

Emmanuel Todd (16 May 1951) is a French historian, demographist, sociologist and political scientist at the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED), in Paris. His research examines the different types of families worldwide and how there are matching beliefs, ideologies and political systems, and the historical events involving these things.

Life and works

Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Emmanuel Todd is the grandson of the writer Paul Nizan and the son of the journalist Olivier Todd. The historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, who pioneered microhistory, was a friend of the family and offered him his first history book. Aged 10, Todd wanted to become an archeologist. He studied at the "Lycée international de Saint-Germain-en-Laye", where he was a member of the Communist Youth. He then studied political science at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and completed his doctoral thesis in historical sciences at Cambridge University.

Todd attracted attention in 1976 when he predicted, at 25 years old, the fall of the Soviet Union, based on indicators such as increasing infant mortality rates: "La chute finale: Essais sur la décomposition de la sphère Soviétique" (The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere).

He then worked for a time in the literary service of "Le Monde" daily, then returned to research, working on the hypothesis of a determination of ideologies and religious or political beliefs by familial systems ("Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure & Social System", 1983). He then wrote, among other books, "The Invention of Europe" (1990) and "The Fate of Immigrants" (1994), in which he defended the "French model" of integration of immigrants.

Opposed to the Maastricht Treaty to create the European Union, advocating "NO" to the 1992 referendum. In 1995, he wrote a memo for the Fondation Saint-Simon, which became famous — the media thereafter attributed to him the paternity of the expression "fracture sociale" (social crack or social gap), used by Jacques Chirac during the 1995 electoral campaign in order to distinguish himself from his rival Edouard Balladur. Todd, however, has rejected this paternity, [http://www.rue89.com/2007/09/19/pour-todd-pas-de-choc-mais-un-rendez-vous-des-civilisations Pour Todd, pas de "choc" mais un "rendez-vous des civilisations"] , "Rue 89", 19 September 2007 fr icon] and attributed the expression to Marcel Gauchet.

In "" (2001), Todd predicted the fall of the United States as the sole superpower.

Although Todd had rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, he was a supporter of the "YES" for the 2005 referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

In "Le Rendez-Vous des Civilisations" (2007), written with fellow demographist Youssef Courbage, Todd criticized Samuel Huntington's thesis of a clash of civilizations.

Essays

With an English translation

*"The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere", 1976
*"Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure & Social System",, 1983
*"The causes of progress :culture, authority, and change" 1984
*"The Making of Modern France: Ideology, Politics and Culture", 1988
*"After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order", 2001

Without an English translation

*"Le Fou et le Prolétaire", Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1979.
*"L'Invention de la France", (with Hervé Le Bras), Éditions Pluriel-Hachettes, Paris, 1981.
*"La Troisième Planète", Éditions du Seuil, coll. Empreintes, Paris, 1983.
*"L'Enfance du monde", Éditions du Seuil, coll. Empreintes, Paris, 1984.
*"La Nouvelle France", Éditions du Seuil, coll. L'Histoire immédiate, Paris, 1988.
*"L'invention de l'Europe" (The Invention of Europe), 1990
*"Le destin des immigrés" (The Fate of Immigrants), 1994
*"L'illusion économique. Essai sur la stagnation des sociétés développées" (The Economic Illusion), 1998
*"La Diversité du monde : Famille et modernité", Éditions du Seuil, coll. L'histoire immédiate, Paris, 1999.
*"Le Rendez-vous des civilisations", with Youssef Courbage, Le Seuil, coll. La République des idées, 2007.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091205H.shtml Emmanuel Todd: The Specter of a Soviet-Style Crisis] translation of an interview with Le Figaro
* [http://www.dominionpaper.ca/features/2003/07/26/the_concei.html The Conceited Empire interview with Martin A. Senn & Felix Lautenschlager for the The New Zuricher]
* [http://www.rwevans.co.uk/wevansnet04/item0042A.htm Interview with Emmanuel Todd, by Michael Monninger] Extract from Prospect, June 2003 see also [http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=5616 this excerpt]
* [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/13/143727/53 Emmanuel Todd interview on the 'French riots'] translation of an interview with Le Monde
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-560028443045614325 Google Video: Charlie Rose interview of Emmanuel Todd] Interview starts at 38:48 in the video.