(Saint-Omer 6 August 1801 – Paris 16 March 1888)
Second son of Lazare Carnot. Father of the President of the French Republic, Sadi Carnot, and also of Adolphe Carnot. Deputy, Minister and member of the Institute.
Hippolyte shared in his father’s exile at Magdeburg, condemned as a regicide in 1816. Hippolyte returned to France in 1823, where he advocated for a while Saint-Simonian ideas. He contributed for several years to the newspaper Le Producteur before departing from the ideas of Enfantin, who was the main propagator of Saint-Simonianism.
After having played an active role in the Revolution of July 1830, Hippolyte was elected Deputy of Paris (1839-1849). He declared himself in favor of the Republic after the Revolution of February 1848 and was named Minister of Public Instruction in 1848, the year in which he founded the first School of Administration (Ecole d’Administration). Elected to the Assembly in 1850 and 1857, he lost his seat when he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis-Napoleon (Napoleon III). He became a member of the Legislative Body in 1864, then Republican Deputy in the National Assembly in 1871, and went on to became Senator for life in 1875.
