DURUY, VICTOR

born Sept. 11, 1811, Paris, France died Nov. 25, 1894, Paris French scholar and public official who, as national minister of education (186369), initiated extensive and controversial reforms. Duruy taught at the Collge Henri IV from 1833 to 1861. He wrote textbooks and works on ancient Roman and Greek civilization, among them Histoire des Romaines . . ., 2 vol. (184344). He assisted Napoleon III with his biography of Julius Caesar and was appointed minister of education by him in 1863. Duruy's controversial proposal to introduce free, compulsory primary education was ahead of its time in France and failed, partly because Napoleon III declined to support it. But he did manage to introduce secular secondary education for girls, add modern languages and contemporary history to lyce and college curricula, reorganize teacher training, and begin a kind of extension-course service for the provinces. Duruy became a senator in 1869 and later returned to academic work, becoming a member of the Acadmie Franaise in 1884. His Histoire des Grecs, 3 vol. (188689), and an enlarged edition in 1891 of Histoire de France de 1453 1815 (1856) renewed his reputation as a scholar.