- Summary
- "From acclaimed biographer and cultural historian, author of For the Soul of France ("Masterful history ... hard to put down."--Henry Kissinger); Zola ("Magnificent."--The New Yorker); andFlaubert ("Impeccable."-James Wood, cover, The New York Times Book Review)-a brilliant reconsideration of the events and the political, social, and religious movements that led to France's embrace of Fascism and anti-Semitism. Frederick Brown explores the tumultuous forces unleashed by the Dreyfus Affair, and examines how the clashing ideologies and the blood-soaked political scandals and artistic movements following the horror of World War I resulted in the country's era of militant authoritarianism; and how rioting, violent racism, and nationalistic fervor overtook France's sense of reason, sealed its fate, and led to the rise of the Vichy government. We see how the French intelligentsia turned away from the humanistic traditions and rationalistic ideals of the Enlightenment in favor of submission to authority that stressed patriotism, militarism, and xenophobia; how French conservatives attempted to rebuild and reshape the country's collective identity as the German threat loomed, as mistrust of the parliamentary Republic increased (a result of its illegal financial mismanagement of the building of the Panama Canal, and nostalgia for a monarchial government and the glories of wartime martyrdom); how the generation that came of age in the trenches, under fire, offered a new vision, and saw salvation in the surrender of reason to instinct. Brown masterfully brings to life Europe's-and France's-darkest modern years"-- Provided by publisher.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Brown, Frederick, 1934-
- Published
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2014
- Locale
- France
Europe
Frankreich
Frankrike
- Edition
- First edition
- Contents
-
The coming of war
The making of a xenophobe
The nightingale of the carnage
The battle for Joan
Royalism's deaf troubadour
Spy mania and postwar revenge
Scars of the trenches
The rapture of the deep
The Stavisky Affair
The Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture
Totalitarian pavilions
The hero of Verdun.
- Notes
-
"This is a Borzoi Book."--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The coming of war -- The making of a xenophobe -- The nightingale of the carnage -- The battle for Joan -- Royalism's deaf troubadour -- Spy mania and postwar revenge -- Scars of the trenches -- The rapture of the deep -- The Stavisky Affair -- The Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture -- Totalitarian pavilions -- The hero of Verdun.
