Editing Maurice Barrès (section)

===Political activism===
[[File:1918 Maurice Barrès.jpg|thumb|[[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome]] portrait by [[The Archives of the Planet|Auguste Léon]], 1918]]
As a young man, Barrès carried his Romantic and individualist theory of the Ego into politics as an ardent partisan of [[George Ernest Jean Marie Boulanger|General Boulanger]], locating himself in the more [[Populism|populist]] side of the heterogenous Boulangist coalition.<ref name=Ory>[[Pascal Ory]], "La nouvelle droite fin de siècle" in ''Nouvelle histoire des idées politiques'' (dir. P. Ory), Hachette Pluriel, 1987, pp. 457–465. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> He directed a Boulangist paper at Nancy, and was elected deputy in 1889, at the age of 27, under a platform of "Nationalism, Protectionism, and Socialism",<ref name=Weber>{{cite journal|author=Eugen Weber|author-link=Eugen Weber|title=Nationalism, Socialism and National-Socialism in France|year=1962|journal=[[French Historical Studies]]|volume=2|issue=3|pages=273–307|doi=10.2307/285883|jstor=285883}}</ref> retaining his seat in the legislature until 1893, when he was defeated under the etiquette of "National Republican and Socialist" (''Républicain nationaliste et socialiste'').<ref name=Nancy/> From 1889, Barrès's activism overshadowed his literary activities, although he tried to maintain both.<ref name=Ory/>

He shifted however to the right-wing during the [[Dreyfus Affair]], becoming a leading mouthpiece, alongside [[Charles Maurras]], of the Anti-Dreyfusard side.<ref name=Academie/> The Socialist leader [[Léon Blum]] tried to convince him to join the Dreyfusards, but Barrès refused and wrote several anti-Semitic pamphlets. He wrote, "That Dreyfus is guilty, I deduce not from the facts themselves, but from his race."<ref>[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/02/bernard-henri-l-vy-lessons-of-the-dominique-strauss-kahn-affair.html 5 Lessons of the DSK Affair], Bernard-Henri Lévy, The Daily Beast, 2 July 2011</ref><ref name="Slama">[[Alain-Gérard Slama]] (professor at [[Sciences-Po]]), [http://coursenligne.sciences-po.fr/2004_2005/slama/seance_11b.pdf "Maurras (1858 (sic)-1952): ou le mythe d'une droite révolutionnaire"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926002014/http://coursenligne.sciences-po.fr/2004_2005/slama/seance_11b.pdf|date=26 September 2007}}, article first published in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' in 2002 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Barrès's anti-Jewishness found its roots both in the [[scientific racism|scientific racial]] contemporary theories and on [[Biblical exegesis]].<ref name=Slama/>

He founded the short-lived review ''[[La Cocarde]]'' (''The [[Cockade]]'') in 1894 (September 1894 – March 1895<ref>[http://www.ac-strasbourg.fr/pedago/lettres/Lecture/Barresbio.htm Biographical notice] from Chr. Biet, J.-Paul Brighelli, J.-Luc Rispail, ''Guide des auteurs, de la critique, des genres et des mouvements'', Magnard, 1984 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>) to defend his ideas, attempting to bridge the gap between the far-left and the far-right.<ref name=Ory/> The ''Cocarde'', nationalist, [[anti-parliamentarist]] and anti-foreign, included a diverse collection of contributors from a wide variety of backgrounds (monarchists, socialists, [[Anarchism in France|anarchists]], Jews, Protestants<ref name=Nancy/>), including [[Frédéric Amouretti]], [[Charles Maurras]], [[René Boylesve]] and [[Fernand Pelloutier]].<ref name="Weber"/>

He was again beaten during the 1896 elections in Neuilly, as a candidate of the Socialist leader [[Jean Jaurès]], and then again in 1897 as a nationalist anti-Semitic candidate, having broken with the left-wing during the Dreyfus Affair.<ref name=Nancy/>

Barrès then assumed the leadership of the [[Ligue de la Patrie française]] (League of the French Fatherland), before taking membership in the ''[[Ligue des Patriotes]]'' (Patriot League) of [[Paul Déroulède]]. In 1914, he became the leader of the Patriot League.<ref name=Academie/>

Close to the nationalist writer [[Charles Maurras]], founder of the monarchist [[Action française]] movement, Barrès refused however to endorse monarchist ideas, although he demonstrated sympathy throughout his life for the Action française. Most of the later monarchist theorists ([[Jacques Bainville]], [[Henri Vaugeois]], [[Léon Daudet]], [[Henri Massis]], [[Jacques Maritain]], [[Georges Bernanos]], [[Thierry Maulnier]]...) have recognised their debt toward Barrès, who also inspired several generations of writers (among which [[Henry de Montherlant|Montherlant]], [[André Malraux|Malraux]], [[François Mauriac|Mauriac]] and [[Louis Aragon|Aragon]]).

Barrès was elected deputy of the Seine in 1906, and retained his seat until his death. He sat at that time among the [[Entente républicaine démocratique]] conservative party. In 1908, he opposed in Parliament his friend and political opponent [[Jean Jaurès]], refusing the Socialist leader's will to [[Panthéon, Paris|Pantheon]]ize the writer [[Émile Zola]]. Despite his political views, he was one of the first to show his respect to Jaurès' remains after his assassination on the eve of [[World War I]].

During World War I, Barrès was one of the proponents of the [[Union Sacrée]], which earned him the nickname "nightingale of bloodshed" ("rossignol des carnages"<ref name=Ory />). The ''[[Canard enchaîné]]'' satirical newspaper called him the "chief of the tribe of brainwashers" ("chef de la tribu des bourreurs de crâne").<ref name=Academie>[http://www.academie-francaise.fr/Immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=502 Biographical notice] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607142139/http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=502 |date=7 June 2007 }} of Barrès on the [[Académie française]]'s website {{in lang|fr}}</ref> His personal notes showed however that he himself did not always believe in his purported war optimism, being at times close to defeatism. During the war Barrès also partly came back on the mistakes of his youth, by paying tribute to French Jews in ''Les familles spirituelles de la France'', where he placed them as one of the four elements of the "national genius", alongside Traditionalists, Protestants and Socialists – thus opposing himself to Maurras who saw in them the "four confederate states" of "Anti-France".

After World War I, Barrès demanded the annexation of [[Luxembourg]] into the French Republic, and also sought to increase French influence in the [[Rhineland]].<ref>Michel Pauly: Geschichte Luxemburgs p.83 (2013)(ISBN 9783406622250)</ref> On 24 June 1920, the National Assembly adopted his draft aiming to establish a national day in remembrance of [[Joan of Arc]].