Mignet, François Auguste Marie [key], 1796–1884, French historian and journalist. With his lifelong friend, Adolphe Thiers, Mignet edited the National, a powerful liberal daily, and helped to overthrow Charles X in the July Revolution of 1830. As a historian, Mignet is best known for L'Histoire de la Révolution française (1824; many later editions and translations). A moderate, Mignet deplored the violence of the Terror but defended the French Revolution as the necessary product of economic and social conditions. He also made significant contributions to the history of the 16th cent., including works on Spanish history.
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