Description
Book SynopsisThe Great War that engulfed Europe between 1914 and 1918 was a catastrophe for France. French soil was the site of most of the fighting on the Western Front. French dead were more than 1.3 million, the permanently disabled another 1.1 million, overwhelmingly men in their twenties and thirties. The decade and a half before the war had been years of plenty, a time of increasing prosperity and confidence remembered as the Belle Epoque or the good old days. The two decades that followed its end were years of want, loss, misery, and fear. In 1914, France went to war convinced of victory. In 1939, France went to war dreading defeat.
To explain the burden of winning the Great War and embracing the collapse that followed, Benjamin Martin examines the national mood and daily life of France in July 1914 and August 1939, the months that preceded the two world wars. He presents two titans: Georges Clemenceau, defiant and steadfast, who rallied a dejected nation in 1918, and Edouard Daladi
Trade Review
Martin (Louisiana State Univ.) is very good at conveying a sense of the indirection that marked the final decades of the Third Republic and prepared the way for the Vichy era. He also succeeds in illuminating the mood of France in this period by considering the ways in which leading writers, particularly Roger Martin du Gard, portrayed France as a nation in political and moral crisis. This work of historical interpretation is both original and lucid. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Scholars and students alike.
* Choice *
Years of Plenty, Years of Want... humanizes some of the prominent individuals in France from the Belle Epoque through the Second World War and will appeal to a wide audience, including undergraduates.
* History: Reviews of New Books *
