BAINVILLE, JACQUES (1879-1936), French historian and journalist, was born at Vincennes, near Paris, Feb. 9 1879. His first literary work was a life of Louis II. of Bavaria (1900) written while travelling in Germany. He came under the influence of Maurras, joined the Royalist party, and, at the time of the Dreyfus case, became in 1899 one of the original editors of the monthly review, Action Francaise. This review in 1906 became a daily paper, of which Jacques Bainville was appointed foreign editor. From that time he devoted his energies to his short daily articles, which were clear, well-written, intelligent and full of striking phrases that soon became proverbial, such as that on the Treaty of Versailles, "trop doux pour ce qu'il a de dur, trop dur pour ce qu'il a de doux." Jacques Bainville was the first writer in France to deal with the political philosophy of the World War. This he did in L'histoire de deux peuples (1915), a work in which the influence of Maurras is modified by that of Thiers and Albert Sorel. The struggle between France and Germany is traced back to the far-off racial antagonisms from which it sprang, and one seems to he reading the documents of an endless lawsuit between the two peoples. The book is breathless and a little superficial, but clearly and brilliantly written. After the conclusion of peace he published Les consequences politiques de la paix (1920) a reply to the well known work of Mr. Maynard Keynes. The title itself of this book reflects the spirit of the Action Francaise, with its motto of "Politics First," and is an indication of how widely Bainville's views differed from those of the Cambridge economist. Bain ville's most celebrated work is his Histoire de France in one volume (1923), which is a model of clearness, intelligence, and grace of style. The doctrines of the Action Francaise in favour of the monarchical system are prominent, but they are considerably modified, and the dominating theme of the book is the continuity of political tradition in France. Latterly, Bainville wrote, after the style of Voltaire, a number of political essays, and, in 1926, a curious novel, Jaco et Lori, in which two parrots survey the political life of France during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth. (A. T.)