Carte de visite Paul Frecker Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. He held cabinet posts under Louis-Philippe, led the parliamentary opposition to Napoléon III from 1863, and as head of the provisional government in 1871 negotiated the peace with Prussia and suppressed the briefly autonomous Paris Commune. From 1871 to 1873 he was the first president of the Third Republic. His books include Histoire de la Révolution Franþaise.