Nationalism, Antisemitism, and Fascism in France · Default Product

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This wide-ranging work confronts the complex question of nationalism in France in its various permutations-myths, obsessions, possibilities, and dangers. French nationalism has always been a double-edged sword, from its beginnings in the French Revolution through the two Napoleonic empires, Boulangism, the Dreyfus affair, the fascist groups of the 1930's, Marshal Petain's National Revolution during World War II, and its latest contemporary incarnation in Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. The author distinguishes between an "open" nationalism, based on the revolutionary values of liberty and equality for all, and "closed" nationalism, which is xenophobic-and, more particularly, antisemitic. He 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 Drumont, Jules Guerin). The author pays particular attention to French "national socialism," which wanted to transcend the categories of left and right in order to unite work

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