In 1972, Bertrand Renouvin defended a doctoral thesis in the history of law at the University of Aix-en-Provence entitled L'Action française avant la question sociale (1899-1944)[1],.

Bertrand Renouvin states that it was while working on this thesis that he became aware of the urgency of "breaking with Action Française and abandoning the reference to Charles Maurras"[1].[...]

Renouvin studies these exchanges by comparing them with the events of May 1968, the concepts of workers' self-management and decentralization developed in the Lettre aux ouvriers of the count of Chambord until the Ordre social chrétien of La Tour du Pin.

[3] Renouvin unveils the constancy of the workers' demands of the Action française with in particular its support for trade unionists in 1906, "the defense of the eight-hour day in 1920 and the main labor reforms under the Popular Front".

[4] Bertrand Renouvin intends to demonstrate how Charles Maurras' "politics first" kept Action Française away from social struggles, despite its instinctive anti-capitalism, and thus doomed it to impotence".