Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Antoine Peyrefitte ( born August 26, 1925 in Najac ( Aveyron ), † 27 November 1999, Paris) was a French politician, author, and member of the Académie française. He was a longtime member of the National Assembly and held several ministerial posts.
Life
After his graduation in modern Montpellier Peyrefitte studied both at the École normale supérieure and the Administrative Sciences École nationale d'administration philosophy, law, Humanities and conducted research in the field of anthropology at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
Peyrefitte embarked on a diplomatic career and received items, among others, the French Embassy in Bonn (1949-1952) and the Consulate in Krakow ( 1954-1956). For the Gaullist party Union pour la Nouvelle République he was in 1958 elected to the French National Assembly. Moreover, it was from 1964 to 1988 represented the General Council of Seine -et -Marne for Bray- sur -Seine and 1965-1997 mayor of Provins. In April 1962 he was appointed as Secretary of State for Information in the first cabinet of Georges Pompidou and directed by September 1962 at the Ministries of resettlement, information, research and education. Due to the events of May 1968 Peyrefitte resigned from his ministerial office.
In the period to 1973, in which he did not belong to the government, he took over the chairmanship of the Committee for Cultural and Social Affairs in the National Assembly ( 1968-1972 ) and held from 1972 to 1983, the Office of the Secretary of the Gaullist Union of Démocrates pour la Ve République ( UDR). After a trip to China in 1971, he published with Quand la Chine s'éveillera ... le monde tremblera an analysis of the Chinese society of the 1970s, which attracted great public attention. In May 1973, he was re-appointed to the French government and held briefly the ministerial posts for administrative reforms (until February 1974) and Culture and the Environment ( to May 1975). A longer term followed from 1977 to 1981, when he headed the Department of Justice. Then he took no posts in the government more and remained a member of the National Assembly until 1995 he was elected a senator for the département of Seine- et- Marne.
The literary work Peyrefittes includes not only a youth novel Les Roseaux froissés and the memoirs C'était de Gaulle mainly essays and contributions to journals and magazines such as Les Cahiers du Sud, Le Point and Le Figaro.
In 1977 he was elected to the French Academy, where he occupied the seat Paul Morand. Ten years later he was admitted to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in the Section of History.
Alain Peyrefitte died on 27 November 1999 in Paris of cancer.
He was honored with the Knight Order of the Légion d' Honneur.