Jean-Clement Martin, born on 31 January 1948, is a French historian, a specialist in the French Revolution, Counter-revolution and the War in the Vendée.
Jean-Clement Martin was a pupil of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. From 2000 to 2008 he was the director of the Institute for the history of the French Revolution, a center of academic research and teaching, connected to Pantheon-Sorbonne University. Since then he is professor emeritus.
He studied the Vendée as a "memory space". For some years his research has focused on understanding violence, the contribution of gender history and the role of religion and religiosity in the revolutionary process.
He is opposed to considering the operations ordered in Vendée by the convention (whether the infernal columns, or the drownings of Nantes) as genocide. In his opinion, "there were war crimes and abominable battles, it is clear, but in no case a genocide".
In 2016, he categorically denies (calling it "sacrificial"), the interpretation of the Marseillaise that "qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!" (Let an impure blood water our furrows!) means in truth that the Fédérés of 1792 were proud to pour their own blood for their homeland.
Vendée-Chouannerie, Nantes, Éditions Reflets du passé, 1981 .
Blancs et Bleus dans la Vendée déchirée, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard, 1986 .
La Vendée et la France, 1789-1799, Éditions du Seuil, 1987 .
La Vendée de la Mémoire, 1800-1980, Éditions du Seuil, 1989 .
La Loire-Atlantique dans la tourmente révolutionnaire, Éditions Reflets du Passé, 1989.
Le Massacre des Lucs, Vendée 1794 (en collaboration avec Xavier Lardière), Geste Éditions, La Crèche, 1992.
Une région nommée Vendée, entre politique et mémoire, Éditions Geste, 1996 .
La Révolution française, étapes, bilans et conséquences, Éditions du Seuil, collection Mémo, 1996 .
La Vendée en 30 questions, Geste Éditions, La Crèche, 1996.
Contre-Révolution, Révolution et Nation en France, 1789-1799, Éditions du Seuil, 1998 .
Le Puy du Fou en Vendée, l'Histoire mise en scène (en collaboration avec Charles Suaud), L'Harmattan, 2000 .