Philippe Olivera is a historian. He devoted his thesis to political essays in France between 1919 and 1932; he has published articles and contributions to collective works on the history of the essay, the forms of public debate, the writer Louis Aragon, communist intellectuals between 1945 and 1968 and editorial production on the occasion of events such as the war of 1914-1918 and May 68. He teaches in Marseille.