France and the Great War, 1914-1918 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Comillas Journal of International Relationa, 2015
The 2014 centenary commemorations of the First World War in France were described by many commentators as being marked by a level of consensus that stood in marked contrast with the broader political environment and the divisive memories of the Second World War. Yet despite shared desires to honour the poilu as a symbol of the sacrifices of all French soldiers, this article argues that the appearance of consensus masks deeper tensions between memories of the First World War and the ideas and values underpinning the French Republic.During the war and the period thereafter, myths of the nation in arms served to legitimise the mobilisationand immense sacrifices of the French people. The wars of the French Revolution had established the notion of the responsibility of the French people to defend their country, creating a close connection between military service, citizenship and membership of the nation.However, these ideas were challenged by memories of the mutinies of 1917 and of the punishment of those who had disobeyed orders.Having long been excluded from official commemorations,in 2014 the French government sought to rehabilitate the memory of the soldiers shot as an example for committing acts of disobedience, espionage and criminal offences. The memory of these soldiers fuelled disagreements over how far soldiers had willingly consented to fight and sacrifice their lives.Indeed, claims that soldiers had been unwilling “victims” undermined myths of the “Sacred Union” of 1914 and the very foundations of republican concepts of the nation.
Memory at the Front: The Struggle Over Revolutionary Commemoration in Occupied France, 1940-1944
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received no serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role during the Occupation. Le 14 juillet was the occasion when Vichy, the collaborationists and the Resistance each chose to glorify, qualify or condemn the Revolution. Their respective selected symbols, words, and ceremonies projected narratives of the proper French past and visions for the postwar future that competed for legitimacy. Each year, this anniversary also served to gauge the French public's response to the conflicting manipulations of the Revolution's memory, thereby becoming a vital testing ground for the political direction of the nation. Ultimately, the evolution of the holiday's meaning during the Occupation period had consequences that reached well into the post-war era.
Societies at War: Britain and France on the Home Front 1914-18 (lecture)
No previous conflict came close to the scale and ferocity of the Great War. Fought mostly in Europe -but also across the continents and oceans of the world -the war required unparalleled sacrifices of men, money and materials. Millions of lives were shattered on the battlefield, while tens of millions more were changed forever by service in the armed forces or in the huge new industries which sprang up to service the war machine. If we include all the citizens and subjects of combatant nations, the numbers whose lives were affected by the war runs to hundreds of millions.
International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2001
Museums and interpretation centres are one of the elements that contribute to the structuring of communal memories within societies. This article considers these processes through the specific study of the ways in which the collective memory of the Second World War in France has evolved. Emphasis is placed on an analysis of the representation of resistance in French museums and interpretation centres. An historical and spatial study of the development of these museums is also developed. This shows how the collective memory has been restructured in recent years as more and more people realise the need for a more ?honest? approach to the mediation of this difficult period in French history; a period that many would like to forget . . .
Les Lieux De Mémoire: French Collective Memory of World War II in the Events of May 1968
2000
The Historical Analysis of How Nations Remember As a way to justify power and explain injustices, historical production often reflects the myth-making processes in society, unveiling the fragile connections between memory and history. The French historian Pierre Nora coined the term lieux de mémoire to describe this connection in terms of the relationship between memory and the French construction of the nation's history. 1 Memory as a form of historical analysis was reevaluated in the mid-1980s in France. This followed a societal questioning of French involvement in the German occupation of World War II and a reexamination of how myths of French resistance had been created in collective memory and were affecting contemporary politics. study of mentalités led toward the examination of "beliefs that order and influence common experience." 6 In the 1980s, historians began acknowledging the physical and symbolic objects that trigger those beliefs. The significance that these sites of memory have played in modern French politics hints at the important and often determining role that collective memory can play in national politics. Three examples of lieux de mémoire that historians have identified as continuing to emerge in French politics are the Bastille, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Marseillaise. Nora edited a well-known series of books entitled Realms of Memory that contains articles related to different lieux de mémoire found in French history including those mentioned above. 7 The volumes in this series fall under seven specific categories of analysis, including French civilization and philosophy, memory, symbolism, national characteristics and nationalism, and include articles by well-known French intellectuals, such as Michel Vovelle, Phillippe Burrin and François Furet. The acknowledgment of lieux de mémoire in French political history has provided a unique perspective for the study of French collective history. Several other histories concerning lieux de mémoire emerged from France in the mid-1980s. Historian Henry Rousso used lieux de mémoire in his examination of how French society has dealt and is dealing with collective