The Mobilization of Intellect: French Scholars and Writers during the Great War

by Martha Hanna

Behind the façade of unity, the French intelligentsia was riven by the same fundamental divisions that had characterized it before the war. For example, the Republican Left argued that German nationalism and militarism began after Kant, with Fichte or Hegel, while the Catholic and nationalistic reactionary Right denounced Kant as the evil inspiration of France's liberal democracy and public school system. The heated rhetoric of the war and the unbearable loss of young lives, says Hanna, lent weight to a redefinition of French culture in national terms―and this, ironically, ended in the cultural conservatism of Vichy France.

This is the first study of the power of French pens and words during and after the Great War. It is a contribution to French and European history as well as to intellectual history.

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1996

Reviews

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly found it interesting how important intellectuals were to the average French person. People paid attention to their thoughts and it swayed opinions. How unlike the United States were intellectuals were/are usually dismissed as not being relevant, too much in the clouds, etc.

Well researched and easy to read.