A founder of Revue d'économie politique in 1887, Gide was a proponent of the French historical school of economics.

[1] During the early 1880s Gide worked with Édouard de Boyve, founder in 1884 of the cooperative Abeille Nîmoise, and with the former manufacturer Auguste Marie Fabre.

These three men founded the French cooperative philosophy that came to be known as the École de Nîmes.

[3] As a Protestant Christian Socialist, Gide was involved with progressive politics in France, endorsing the université populaire philosophy after the Dreyfus Affair.

Gide endorsed the Union pour la Verite (League for Truth) created by philosopher Paul Desjardins in 1892 promoting the cause of the Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus during the political scandal involving him.