Book Review: Western Europe: In Search of France
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Hugh Thorburn |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900132 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REVIEWS
1Ml
IN
SEARCH
OF
FRANCE.
By
Stanley
Hoffman,
Charles
P.
Kindleberger,
Laurence
Wylie,
Jesse
R.
Pitts,
Jean-Baptiste
Duroselle
and
Francois
Goguel.
1963.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xiii,
443pp.
$10.50)
Prepared
under
the
auspices
of
the
Center
for
International
Affairs,
Harvard
University,
this
book
is
not
just
a
collection
of
essays. The
authors
worked
together
for
more
than
two
years,
each
concentrating
on
a
particular
aspect
of
French
life,
but
developing
their
approaches
by
discussion.
Finally
a
seminar attended
by
experts
in
the
subject
from
America
and
France
gave
the authors
the
comments
and
criti-
cisms of
other
specialists.
The
result
is
an
extremely
penetrating
and
broadly-based
analysis.
The
most
comprehensive
and
stimulating
essays
are
the
first,
by
Stanley
Hoffman,
and
the
last,
by
Francois
Goguel.
Hoffman
discusses
the
paradoxes
of
the
French
political community.
He
sees
a
republican
synthesis
in
the
period of
1875-1934
in
a
stalemated
society
where
both
bourgeoisie
and
peasantry
sought
to
preserve the
social
order.
The
government
achieved
this
by
non-intervention
in
economic
life
and
by
defending
situations
acquises.
The
synthesis
was
undermined
after
1934
by
the
depression
and
the
menace
of
fascism,
which
encouraged
pacifism
and
revolutionary activities
on
the
Left,
and
defeatism
and
reaction
on
the
Right.
The
external
shocks
of
depression,
defeat
and
occupation
freed
the
country
from
its
smug
acceptance
of
the
old
order,
and unleashed
new
dynamic
forces of
social
and
economic
change.
The
result
is
the
emergence
of
a
new
hierarchy
based
on
skills
and
per-
formance,
with
the
state
playing
a
positive
role in
directing
the
economy.
Modernization
of
production
is
bringing
about
profound
social
changes,
yet the
old
political
parties
remain
as
divided
and
preoccupied
with
the
"game"
of
politics
and
their
doctrines
as
ever.
Political
change
lags
behind
economic
and
social,
and this
provokes
from
the
citizens
a
combination
of
apathy
and
rebellion.
However,
behind
this
facade
of
chaos
is
a
growing
consensus
on
substantive
issues.
Charles
Kindleberger
gives
a
thorough
analysis
of
the
post-war
resurgence
of
the
French
economy,
and
traces
it
mainly
to
changes
in
the
psychological
attitudes
of
Frenchmen
and
to
the
emergence of
an
acceptance
of
the
need
for
economic
growth.
This
is
taken
up
in
socio-
logical
terms
by
Laurence
Wylie,
who
looks
at
social
change
at
the
grass
roots,
and
Jesse
R.
Pitts,
who
writes
about
continuity
and
change
in
bourgeois
France.
These
two
essays
are the
most
hypothetical
and
abstract
of
the
lot, and
are
the
most controversial.
Both
assume
a
synthesis
of
French
values, which each
lays out
in
impressive
detail.
This seems
too
neat,
especially
for
a country
like
France
composed
of
so
many
schools of
thought,
and
divided
into
discreet
classes,
regions
and
traditions.
The essay
by
Jean-Baptiste
Duroselle
is on
changes
in
French
foreign
policy,
but
it
goes
beyond
this
to
present
a vivid dis-
cussion of
changing
French
attitudes
to
politics,
to Europe, to production
and
to
achievement.
The
concluding
essay
by
Francois
Goguel
is
a
critique
of
all
the
others,
and
a
brilliant
analysis itself
of
the
new
France. Essentially
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