"THE MORAL DISARMAMENT OF FRANCE:
EDUCATION, PACIFISM AND PATRIOTISM, 1914-1940"
Mona Siegel, professor of History
 France's decision to stay out of the war in Iraq may have had more to do with Europe's own bloody history than many Americans are aware, according to History professor Mona Siegel. In her book, Siegel explores the cultural impact of modern warfare on France.
"I do think that Europeans' experience with warfare (on their own soil) in the 20th Century has made them view the Iraq War in very different terms than many Americans," Siegel says. "After the horrors of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, it is very difficult for Europeans
to turn a blind eye to the extraordinary human costs of warfare."
Siegel addresses the national memory of World War I in France. And she refutes long-held assumptions about the cultural causes of France's defeat in World War II.
Specifically, she explores how France's educators
were blamed for cultivating a pacifistic and unpatriotic culture, which many at the time believed facilitated the Nazis' quick victory in 1940. Siegel argues that while teachers were pacifists they still promoted patriotism.
The butchery and horror of trench warfare in World War I – which left 1.4 million French killed – led many French to adopt pacifism over militarism between the wars, a view from which teachers were not immune, Siegel says.
The book includes the voices of children and explores the transmission of values between generations born before and after World War I.
(CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DEC. 2004, $75) |
