3 Review(s)

This study confronts the complex question of nationalism in France in its various permutations, from its beginnings in the French Revolution through the two Napoleonic empires, Boulangism, the Dreyfus affair, the fascist groups of the 1930s, Marshal Petain's National Revolution during World War II, and its latest contemporary incarnation in Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. The author studies not only governments and political figures - Napoleon, Louis Napoleon, Marshal Petain, and General de Gaulle - but also the myths associated with nationalism. These myths are captured in newspaper articles (the charity bazaar fire of 1897), in literature (Huysmans, Celine), and in the writings of insurgents (Edouard Drumount, Jules Guerin). In the process of analyzing nationalism in France, the author draws on areas of study ranging from French anti-Americanism and Zeev Sternhell's history of 'unconscious' fascism in France to the mythical use of Joan of Arc in the service of antisemitism.