Showing papers in "Vingtieme Siecle-revue D Histoire in 1989"

Les générations intellectuelles

Abstract: Intellectual generations, Michel Winock The notion of generation can be particularly fruitful for the history of intellectuals, provided not too much is asked of it : it allows both description and explanation, emphasizes the major collective moments and helps relate individual itineraries better with them. It can be used to propose a stratigraphy of the history of the French intelligentsia, from the generation of the Dreyfus affair to that of 1968, and including e.g. the generation of the depression or that of the Cold War. Seemingly chaotic behavior, itineraries and phenomena become thereby more intelligible.

Approche sociologique de la génération

Abstract: Sociological approache to generations, Marc Devriese. The major conclusions of research in psychosociology, political sociology and historical sociology concerning generations distinguish three generations, based on age, cohort and period.

Le retour de la géographie

Abstract: The return of geography, Jean-Robert Pitte ; After a few " blissful decades " during which it became a composite of sub-disciplines, geography has corne full circle. It is now more visible in the landscape of the media landscape and makes itself heard in the concert of the social sciences. It is now ready to renew relations with its old companion, history ; it now has a different type of reflection on space, the environment, human action. Geography examines the new relation between nature and culture which haunts the end of the 20th century. This article opens the perspective ; it is an invitation to a resumption of a long-interrupted dialogue.

Génération et histoire politique

Abstract: Generations and political history, Jean-Francois Sirinelli. ; The interest which political history has shown in the notion of generation is recent. Because history has renewed itself by exploring new areas which include cultures, ideas and mentalities, generations have become both topics and analytical tools. The concept can no longer be assimilated simply to age classes or age effects or even of youth ABSTRACTS ; Couple and generation, a history of hâte and love, Jessica Scale ; The couple changes over a long time-span which presents more continuity than rupture between generations. This reality sets it apart in two ways from the idea of generation : 1) the concept of generation is supported by a fascination with the dialectic in which the social dynamic emerges from the inter-generational conflict 2) the idea of generation. But the generational approach can not be founded on the principle of crystallization at a certain âge, of behavior and orientations which in fact are not fixed for ever. Nevertheless, while everything in the couple is opposed to the generational conflict, the heuristic power of the notion of generation is not reduced. ; Three marriage âges in a single century, ; Martine Sau^ay ; During the 20th century there may hâve been three patterns ; establishment-marriage, in which emotions can enter in conflict with the institution ; merger-marriage after 1945, which is very demanding of the couple ; post-1968 association-marriage, which unites more autonomous individuals. Feminist de-mands seem to hâve played a major role in this history of the couple. ; Generations and political history, Jean-Francois Sirinelli ; The interest which political history has shown in the notion of generation is recent. Because history has renewed itself by ex-ploring new areas which include cultures, ideas and mentalities, generations hâve be-come both topics and analytical tools. The concept can no longer be assimilated simply to âge classes or âge effects or even of youth ; or cohort. Because they produce cleavages, within the various structures of politics, because they are exacerbated at times of crisis, and because they call into play phe-nomena of social memory, generational me-chanisms hâve become indispensable in the analysis of politics. ; Communist generations, Philippe Buton ; The concept of generation, understood as cohort of affiliations, with singularities marked by references to different founding events and social profiles, whose specificity is experienced as such, does help understand the development of the French Communist Party. " Generation of the war ", " party of metal workers ", " party of those executed " during the war, party of " Maurice Thorez ", then of the Union of the Left, successive strata illustrate the changes of the Party within the Bolchevik mold, which remained unchanged since the graft of the 1920s. ; Socialist generations ? Alain Bergounioux ; From the SFIO of the Congress of Tours and the Popular Front to the Socialist Party of the Epinay Congress and the 1980s, can the history of French socialists be analysed in terms of generations ? The hypothesis is often tempting, considering, for example movements such as the neo-socialism of the 1930s or the minorities revolting against the SFIO of Guy Mollet during the Algerian war and in the 1960s. A more elaborate analysis reveals however, if not the inap-propriateness, at least the limits of such an approach. The development of party socia-lism seems to hâve resulted more from strictly political parameters than from possible generational cleavages. ; 182

Neutral Europe between War and Revolution, 1917-23

Abstract: As the most complex event of the 20th century, the First World War continues to fascinate historians. They have produced more articles, monographs and general histories about the Great War and its aftermath than for any other comparable period in Western history. Almost all historians have, of course, concentrated on explaining the effects of the war on the belligerents, both victors and vanquished. Only a handful have attempted to explain the effects of the war on the neutral nations of Europe. Thus, this monograph, edited by Hans Schmitt, is a welcome addition to the historiography of the Great War and its aftermath. In separate chapters, each contributor assesses the effect of the war on a neutral nation and attempts to answer the question posed by the editor in the Preface. \"How did the echoes of battle disturb the peace, [the neutrals] insisted on preserving within their boundaries?\" (p. viii). The common answer offered by each contributor is that the war and its attendant revolutions jolted every neutral nation. Some were shaken more severely than others but, as Stephen Macdonald points out in his excellent summary essay, the powerful reverberations of the war are particularly evident when even those guardians of order, the Swiss bank clerks, go out on strike. Yet, in the final analysis, each contributor also concludes that nowhere among the neutral nations did the war produce a true revolutionary situation, not even in Spain. Each author examines and rejects the hypothesis that there was a missed revolutionary opportunity in the last years of the war. Throughout the volume it is evident that whatever the level of the rhetoric, nowhere among the neutral nations was there a revolutionary leader who was prepared to risk everything in order to overthrow the existing social structure. Not even the leaders of the Norwegian Labour Party, who chose to accept Lenin's Twenty-One Conditions, were prepared to challenge by force the existing system. As Sten Nilson points out in his rather plodding essay, even revolutionary leaders in Norway shied away from communist militancy and the call to civil war. The same attitude prevailed everywhere. And, as Carol Gold explains in her finely crafted chapter on Denmark, revolutions can occur spontaneously but they never succeed without leadership. Spain, which as we know was already close to revolution in the years of the Great War, provides the clearest example of a missed revolutionary opportunity. But, as Gerald Meaker demonstrates, even Largo Caballero, after the collapse of the general strike in August 1917, refused to promote any more revolutionary \"adventures\". Perhaps because the situation in Spain produced the richest potential for revolution, Professor Meaker has written the most satisfying chapter in the volume. In his analysis, Professor Meaker establishes that the events in Spain in 1917 fell short of a true revolutionary situation. However, he also establishes that those events did produce a crisis of authority a crisis, as he says, \"of the state and not of the people\" (p. 43).