High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! René Grousset (September 5, 1885 September 12, 1952) was a French historian, curator of both the Cernuschi and Guimet Museums in Paris, and a member of the prestigious French Academy. He wrote several major reference volumes on Asiatic and Oriental civilizations, with his two most important works being History of the Crusades (1934-1936) and The Empire of the Steppes, a History of Central Asia (1939), both of which were considered standard references on the subject.