A student of René Rémond, he specialises in cultural and political history and has written on Fascism ever since his master's dissertation on the Greenshirts of Henri Dorgères.

[citation needed] Ory is a professor at the Université de Paris-I-Panthéon-Sorbonne.

He is president of the Association pour le développement de l'histoire culturelle (ADHC) and regent of the Collège de 'Pataphysique.

Involved in politics, he was a municipal councillor, formerly an ally to the mayor Georges Lemoine, and head of the socialist list in the municipal elections of March 2001, in the city of Chartres.

[citation needed] Ory was elected to the Académie Française on 4 March 2021.