Lucien Herr: Socialist Librarian of the French Third Republic

Lucien Herr was the director of the library of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the leading academic institution of France, from 1888 to 1926. In addition to being a library innovator of the time, he was an influential socialist and an early voice in the Dreyfus Affair. From his citadel in the library, he influenced the thinking of France's emerging socialist leaders, Jean Jaurès and Léon Blum. He had the option of a career as a professor, with all of the privileges that it would have accorded...