Guilherme Sampaio

Presentation 

Guilherme Sampaio received his PhD in History from the European University Institute (2016). His thesis examined the translation, diffusion, and reception of the economist John Maynard Keynes’s writings in France (1920s-50s). Working from an intellectual history standpoint, his research interests cover the societal impact of economic ideas in France, through their influence into policymaking and public debates. Previously he also worked on the political theory and praxis of nineteenth-century Portuguese Republicanism. He is currently transforming his thesis into a book manuscript under contract with Routldge while expanding his research focus towards the early ideational history of European integration

Research project

John Maynard Keynes remains the best-known economist of modern times while given its historical penchant for economic interventionism, to this day France is regularly deemed a Keynesian country. Yet historians have paradoxically long agreed that until his death in 1946, Keynes was largely ignored by Frenchmen, while soon afterwards his ideas became dominant in the ‘Trente glorieuses’. Based on a novel analysis of how Keynes’s thought was diffused in France from the 1920s to the 1950s, I demonstrate instead that his writings were always thoroughly discussed but that contrasting understandings of monetary policy meant they never came to dominate French policymaking and academia.

Accordingly, during the Fellowship I will write an academic monograph derived from my doctoral thesis, to be published by  Routledge. Entitled ‘Keynes and French Economic Policy’, it will be the first scholarly book examining the French reception of Keynes. The first five chapters examine the reception of Keynes’s ideas from the Versailles Treaty to the outbreak of World War II, while the final two scrutinise the repercussion of his economic thought from Vichy France to the arrival of General De Gaulle to power. Further taking advantage of my stay at the IAS, the book will include new archival research.