Book Review: The Liberation of Paris
| Published date | 01 March 1963 |
| Date | 01 March 1963 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206301800133 |
| Author | Geoffrey Adams |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEW
125
THE
LmaATIoN
oF
PARIS.
By
Willis
Thornton.
1962.
(New
York:
Harcourt,
Brace.
Toronto:
Longmans.
xvi,
231pp.
$7.50)
This
is
not
essentially
a work
of
original
scholarship, nor
does
It
pretend
to
be.
Mr.
Thornton's
very
readable
account
of
Paris
from
Occupation
to
Liberation
derives
basically
from
Adrien
Dansette's
Histoire
de
la
Libdration
de
Paris,
published
in
1946.
Original
sources
have
been
consulted
as
well,
although
rather
indiscriminately
in
one
or
two
cases,
as
for
instance
in
an
excessive
reliance
upon
the
recollec-
tions
of
Jacques
Bardoux,
a
veteran
senator
of
the
Third
Republic.
Mr.
Thornton's
analysis
of
the
various
Paris
Resistance organiza-
tions leads
to
the
conclusion
that
the radical
tradition
of
that
city
has
changed
but
little
since
1830.
It
is
the
intellectuals
and
certain
sections
of
the
working
class who
lead
Paris
to
revolt
against
tyranny.
But,
then
as
now,
it
is
not
these elements
which
come
to
power
once
tyranny
is
overwhelmed.
There
were
probably
at
the
most
5,000
active Resistance
fighers
on
the
barricades
in
Paris
in August,
1944.
A
month
later
there
were
some
123,000
septembrisards
claiming
mem-
bership
in
the
official
Resistance
and
a
role in
the
shaping
of
the
policies
of
the
Fourth
Republic!
By
August,
1944,
when
the
liberation
of
Paris
was
imminent,
the
city
was
occupied
by
some
7,000
rear-area
German
troops
who,
with
their
commander
Choltitz,
were
in
the
main more
anxious
to
withdraw
from
the capital
in
dignity
than
to
offer
a
list-ditch defense.
The
real
issue
thus
became,
as
Thornton
implies
but
does
not
clearly
enough
establish,
the
struggle
between
the
radical
"internal"
Resistance, eager
to
seize
power in
Paris
and
proclaim
a
new
order
of
things
based
on
social
justice,
and
the
"external"
Gaullist
Resistance
whose
leader
was
determined to
thwart
any
such
radical
enterprise.
In
deflecting
the
radical
thrust
for
power
in
Paris,
de
Gaulle
could
in
the
last
resort
rely
upon
the
Allies, who
were
no
more
anxious
to
have a
"Red
pocket"
behind
their
advancing
lines
than
was
Stalin to
permit an
autonomous
Warsaw
rising
independent
of
Russian Communist
control
behind
the
Red
Army
advancing
toward
Germany.
The
Cold
War
had
already
begun.
And
when
de
Gaulle
disdained an
appearance
at
the
H6tel
de
Ville
where
the
radicals
desired
to
celebrate
the
birth
of
the
new
republic,
the
first
symbolical
step
on
the
long
path
toward
Caesarian
democracy
had
been
taken.
"Je
suis
la
Rkpublique!"
intoned
the
General.
The
social
revolution
for
which
in
the
minds
of
many
Parisians
their
city
had
been
liberated
was to
remain
unrealized.
Loyola
College
GEOFFREY
ADAMS
THE
ALGERIANS.
By
Pierre
Bourdieu.
Translated
by
Alan
C.
M.
Ross.
With
a
preface
by
Raymond
Aron.
1962.
(Boston:
Beacon
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xiv,
208pp.
$4.50)
The
Algerian
war
is
over, but
the
Algerian
problem
remains. It
is
something
with
which
both
France
and
the
West
are
going
to
have
to
deal.
Independent
Algeria
presents
the
serious challenges
of
a
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