Considered the greatest French historian of Britain of his generation, he was Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne at the time of his death.

Based at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Historical Research and spending much of his time in the Public Record Office, he became a life-long Anglophile.

[1][2] On his return to France in 1949 he worked as a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies until 1956 and was also a teaching assistant in contemporary history at the Sorbonne (1949–1953) and a professor at the Lycée Janson de Sailly (1953–1956).

He received his doctorate in 1956 with his dissertation, L'économie britannique et le blocus continental (1806-1813), a two-volume study on the economic impact of the Napoleonic blockade of Britain.

[9] His other awards and distinctions include: Liberty and creativity were the source of Europe's power in the past, of the dominance that it once had in the world, and of an economic growth that, contrary to what false prophets claim, is the necessary condition for reducing poverty.