Book Review: Military and Scientific Affairs: Société Militaire et Suffrage Politique en France
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Author | John C. Cairns |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900417 |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
567
Unity
is
provided
by
an
introduction
and
editorial
comments
by
Dr.
Stein
which
sparkle with
a
refreshing
malice
all
too
rarely
found
today
in
the
writings
of
American political
scientists. There
are
two
important
studies
of
pre-war
military
policy
by
Dr.
Michael
D.
Reagan.
Dr.
Robert
J.
Quinlan
gives
us
valuable
accounts
of
naval
planning
in
1941
and
of
the
negotiation
of
the
Italian
Armistice in
1943;
both
sub-
jects
on
which
very
little
information
has
hitherto
been
available,
and
for
which
Dr.
Quinlan
has
been
able
to consult
classified
sources.
On
post-war
military
policy
Dr.
Paul
Y.
Hammond contributes detailed
studies
of
the
unsavoury controversy
between
the
Navy
and
the
Air
Force
in
1949
over
the
development
of
the
B36
bomber,
and
of
the
development
of
policy
towards
Germany;
the
latter
leading
up
to
a
valuable
and
original analysis
by
Dr.
Laurence
W.
Martin
of
the
decision
to
rearm
Germany
in
1950.
All
the
contributions
to the
collection
are
distinguished works
of
scholarship, but
those
which
I
have
mentioned
are
of
such
outstanding importance
to
historians
that
they
unfortunately
make
this
bulky
and
expensive
volume
indispensable
to
any respectable
library
of
contemporary
historical
literature.
University of
London
MICHAEL
HoWAR)
SOCItTA
MILITAIRE
ET
SUFFRAGE
POLITIQUE
EN
FRANCE.
Depuis
1789. By
Jean-Paul
Charnay.
1964.
(Paris:
S.E.V.P.E.N.
319pp.)
This
book
could
certainly
have
been
written
ten
years
ago,
but
it
would
have
been
considerably
less
interesting
and
its
documentation
far
less
rich.
The
Fifth
Republic
and
the
Algerian
drama
unleashed
a
mass
of
military
activity
on
the
margin,
if
not
at
the
very
centres
of
political
affairs,
the
evidence
of
which
was
swiftly revealed
in
a
series
of
trials.
All
this
M.
Charnay
has
made
good
use
of,
recalling
in some
way
the
excellent American
studies
of
James
H.
Meisel
and
Edgar
S.
Furniss,
Jr.,
although the
period
under
review
here
is
longer,
and
the
definition
of
purpose
narrower.
On
the
whole,
it
is
clear
from
this
review
of
the
French
evidence
that
the
civil
and
military
societies
are
separate
and
distinct,
even
in
the
age
of
conscription
and
the
so-called
citizen
soldier.
Though
they
have
often
interpenetrated,
the
conclusion
here
is
that
the
spirit
characterizing
each
is so
peculiar
that
it
is
well
for
the
two
to
remain
apart.
The
entry,
or attempted
entry,
of
the
military
into
the
domain
of
politics
has
seldom
been
happy, and
must
always
threaten
the
civil
society
with
a
procedure
which
is
essentially
hostile.
Obviously
this
sort
of
general
consideration
is
hardly
novel,
and
the
principal
interest
of
this
long
work
is
in
the
details,
the
evidence
adduced
at
length.
As
mentioned
before,
a
great
deal
of
the
supporting
material
comes
from
the fascinating
court-room
procedures
in
the
last
few
years
where
the
ambitions,
frustrations
and
aggressions
of
the
military
men
have
been
willingly
laid
bare
in
such
a
manner,
I
think, as
no
other
period
and
history
can
show.
This
makes
the
material
from
the more
distant
past
seem
somewhat
slight,
but
is,
perhaps,
an
excellent
illustra-
tion
of
the
familiar
fact
that
most
of
the
evidence
historians
need
and
desire
has
disappeared
for
ever.
University
of
Toronto
JOHN
C.
CAIRNS
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