A convert to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism, he defended his far-right views most notably in a longtime column in Le Figaro and on Radio Courtoisie.
A native of Belleville-sur-Meuse, "on the outskirts of the battle of Verdun" in his own words,[1] and raised by his uncle and aunt, Pierre René Chaunu was deeply scarred by his own family tragedies,[2] which explained the reasons for his conservatism.
Strongly influenced by Fernand Braudel, who was his mentor, and the Annales School (where he was secretary to Lucien Febvre), Chaunu defended his dissertation on Séville et l’Atlantique in 1954.
He was professor at the lycée at Vanves (1951–1956), part-time lecturer at the faculté des lettres in Paris (1956), researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), elected member of CNRS after 1957 and of the Comité consultant des universités, and in 1959 chargé d’enseignement (assistant professor).
[8] He was a lay preacher in the temple at Courseulles-sur-Mer (Reformed Church of France) and a committee member of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français.
In evoking the word "plague", the historian very explicitly recalled the terrible epidemic that decimated the European population in the fourteenth century.