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Thế Anh Nguyen

Portrait of Thế Anh   Nguyen

Nguyễn Thế Anh (1 June 1936, Thakhek, Laos — 19 March 2023, Toulouse, France) was a Vietnamese historian specializing in modern history of Vietnam — in particular the Nguyễn dynasty — and its relations with neighboring countries. 

Certified professor of history in 1963, Nguyễn Thế Anh served as President (Recteur) of Hué University (1966−1969), then Head of the Department of History at Saigon Faculté des lettres from 1969 to April 1975, when he left Vietnam at the end of the American War. 

After being a visiting researcher at IRSEA Singapore, he moved to France in 1976, becoming a researcher and study director at the Centre national de la recherché scientifique until 1991. He was invited to teach at Harvard University (USA) in 1978. In 1987, he presented his doctoral thesis — ​‘La monarchie des Nguyễn de la mort de l’empereur Tự Đức à 1925’ — at Sorbonne University, Paris. In 1991, he was appointed Head of research unit and Professor (Professor Emeritus since 2014) at École pratique des hautes études (EPHE, IVe section, sciences historiques et philologiques), while coordinating the Centre d’histoire et civilisations de la péninsule indochinoise within CNRS.

In his research and publications, Prof. Nguyễn Thế Anh always set Vietnamese studies in regional and worldwide contexts, exploring dynamics in Mainland Southeast Asia as well as international trade and navigation routes connecting Vietnam to other parts of the world. 

Publications

  • Bibliographie critique sur les relations entre le Viêt-Nam et l’Occident, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 1967.
  • Kinh tế và xã hội Việt Nam dưới các vua triều Nguyễn [Economy and Society under the Nguyen Dynasty], Saïgon : Trình Bầy, 1968 (Lửa Thiêng, 1970, 2d ed. ; Văn học, 2008, 3d ed.).
  • Việt Nam dưới thời Pháp đô hộ [Vietnam Under French Domination], Saigon, Lửa Thiêng, 1970 (Trung Tâm Sản Xuất Học Liệu, 1974, 2d ed.; Văn học, 2008, 3d éd.).
  • Lịch sử các quốc gia Ðông Nam Á (trừ Việt-Nam) từ nguyên sơ đến thế kỷ XVI [History of Southeast Asian Countries (except for Vietnam) from the origins to the 16th century], Saïgon : Lửa Thiêng, 1972.
  • Phong trào kháng thuế miền Trung năm 1908 qua các châu bản triều Duy Tân [The Protest against taxes in Central Vietnam, 1908, through the red documents of Duy-Tân’s reign], Saigon : Bộ VHGD và TN, 1973 (Văn học, 2008, 2e éd.).
  • The withering days of the Nguyen Dynasty, Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Research notes and discussions series 7, 1978.
  • ‘Le nationalisme vietnamien au début du XXe siècle : son expression à travers une curieuse lettre au roi d’Angleterre’, BEFEO 65 – 2, 1978: 421 – 430.
  • ‘Le Nam Tien dans les textes vietnamiens’, in Les frontières du Vietnam: Histoire des frontières de la peninsule indochinoise, Pierre-Bernard Lafont (ed.), Paris, L’Harmattan/​CNRS, 1989: 121 – 8.
  • Le Đại Việt et ses voisins, d’après le ​“Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư” (“Mémoires historiques du Đại-Việt au complet”), Paris : L’Harmattan, Recherches asiatiques, 1990. [tr. Bui Quang Tung & Nguyên Huong, revue et annotée par Nguyên Thê Anh].
  • ‘La réforme de l’impôt foncier de 1875 au Viêt-nam’, BEFEO 78, 1991: 287 – 296.
  • Monarchie et fait colonial au Viêt-Nam (1875−1925). Le crépuscule d’un ordre traditionnel, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1992.
  • [with Alain Forest] Notes sur la culture et la religion en péninsule indochinoise, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1995.
  • ‘La conception de la monarchie divine dans le Viêt Nam traditionnel’, BEFEO 84, 1997: 147 – 157.
  • [with Alain Forest] Guerre et paix en Asie du Sud-Est, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998.
  • [ed. with Yoshiaki Ishizawa] Commerce et navigation en Asie du Sud-Est (XIVe – XIXe siècles) / Trade and navigation in Southeast Asia (14th-19th centuries), Paris : L’Harmattan, 1999.
  • [with Harmut Rotermund & al.] L’Asie orientale et méridionale aux XIXe et XXe siècles, Paris, PUF/​Nouvelle Clio, 1999.
  • ‘Le bouddhisme dans la pensée politique du Viêt-Nam traditionnel’, BEFEO 89, 2002: 127 – 143.
  • Into the Maelstrom: Vietnam during the Fateful 1940s, Westminster, CA : Viên Viêt-Hoc, 2005, 58 p. (Vietnam Culture Series n° 3).
  • Parcours d’un historien du Viêt Nam. Recueil des articles écrits par Nguyễn Thế Anh, Philippe Papin (ed.), Paris, Les Indes Savantes, 2008.
  • Việt Nam: Un voyage dans son histoire, Paris, Les Éditions de la Frémillerie, 2009.
  • Un vingtième siècle vietnamien, Paris, Les Éditions de la Frémillerie, 2014.