La Loi de 1905 n’aura pas lieu

Jean Baubérot is a prolific historian of laïcité with an admirable habit of upending some of the received wisdom on the subject. Scholars and commentators invariably see the French attitude to faith as marked by hostility, fear and suspicion. Yet as Baubérot has argued in a series of works aimed at both an academic and general audience, there has never been a single understanding of laïcité, and even a cursory glance at the historical record shows a genuine respect for religious liberty at the heart of landmark measures such as the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State. Another mark of his originality is his willingness to revise tired arguments about French exceptionalism. Political leaders (and many scholars) routinely proclaim the national uniqueness of laïcité. In works such as Laïcités sans frontières Baubérot reveals the complex web of comparison and cultural transfer that shaped the 1905...

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