Talk:Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau

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Untitled

This article could really use an introductory summary of Waldeck-Rousseau's major achievements and such.

First name

Is the French Wikipedia really to be considered a reliable source on the man's first name? I have a number of books which refer to him as "René Waldeck-Rousseau." I have Jean-Denis Bredin's The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus and Robert Tombs' France 1814-1914 - both use René. So do Britannica and Columbia Encyclopedia. A quick Google Books search gives about the same number of results for Pierre and René, but those for René include Leslie Derfler's The Dreyfus Affair and a number of historical works in French. Now, there are certainly also sources that refer to him as "Pierre." The thing of it is, it's very easy to see why someone might mistakenly think he was known as Pierre - it's the first of his given names. It's much harder to see why someone might mistakenly think he was known as René. I'd say the balance of evidence favors "René," whatever the French wikipedia may say. john k (talk) 16:23, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In his family, he was known as René, but as a barrister and later as a politician he was called Pierre, probably because when he began to practise, his father, also known as René, was member of the same bar and mayor of Nantes (source: his biography by Pierre Sorlin, Paris, Armand Colin, 1966). The signatory of all his writings as a senator and a minister (papers, books, bills, decrees, etc.) was « Waldeck-Rousseau » without any first name. See the websites of French Senate, National Assembly and Prime minister. Therefore we can keep « Pierre », I think. Utorak-sedamdeset (talk) 10:22, 13 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Damned French government. It seems like either name would be appropriate, so I guess may as well leave it as it is. john k (talk) 03:40, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It should be René surely.i've read many books about the period in English and in French and all without exception call him René. If you read contemporary sources in English and French it is also René. he may well have chosen to use Pierre when he was being a lawyer but that is not what he is remembered as. Perhaps something in the text to this effect would stop the confusion. dorkinglad (talk)