Authoritative, subtle, and persuasive, this book is a major advance in conceptualizing the transformation of the French state in the mid-twentieth century. It will supersede any current literature on the subject. -- Richard F. Kuisel, Georgetown University In this splendid book, Nord takes a big topic, and addresses it with infectious enthusiasm, rigor, and humor. Nobody else knows as much about the interconnections between the lives and careers of the midcentury elite of French administrators, experts, and intellectuals, who from the 1930s to 1950s, emerged as the ruling class of the reshaped French state. -- Martin Conway, University of Oxford
Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi INTRODUCTION. Postwar Stories 1 Part I. THE FRENCH MODEL 17 CHAPTER 1. The Crisis of the Thirties 25 CHAPTER 2. The War Years 88 CHAPTER 3. The Liberation Moment 145 Part II. A CULTURE OF QUALITY 215 CHAPTER 4. Art and Commerce in the Interwar Decades 221 CHAPTER 5. Culture in Wartime 254 CHAPTER 6. The Culture State 311 Conclusion 360 Notes 385 Index 435
Philip Nord is the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University. His books include "Paris Shopkeepers and the Politics of Resentment" (Princeton), "The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France", and "Impressionists and Politics: Art and Democracy in the Nineteenth Century".
"[S]uperb... [An] unparalleled contribution to the history of the state and society in France."--Paul V. Dutton, American Historical Review "Nord offers a magisterial, highly nuanced account of the dramatic remaking of the French nation after the crushing defeat of 1940 and the empty years of occupation by the Nazis."--Choice "Most of the time, reading a work on controversial eras of French history--and especially the Vichy regime--imparts a teeter-totter effect, as the historian seesaws between contrasting sides. Philip Nord, instead, quietly presents a convincing analysis that integrates and harmonizes the opposing sides without disservice to truth... On the author's insightful telling, what was new on the modern French scene was the presence, and concerted action, of Christians committed to democracy, some of them engaged as organized partisans, others as unaffiliated individuals. The emergent model--what Nord calls 'France's "new deal"'--was a thoroughly French version of the activist state: modern and modernizing in economic life, yet allergic to liberal laissez-faire individualism."--Steve Englund, Commonweal "[V]ery wide-ranging and informed... This is a very thought-provoking work, which will be a point of reference for the discussion of French modernization in the future; it is also very well written even though it deals with daunting technical issues and is a work of primary research. It is rare to find such reader-friendly work at such a demanding level."--David S. Bell, European Legacy "Philip Nord's new book tells a big story and teaches us something novel and important about twentieth-century France... Nord's book makes an original and on the whole convincing argument."--Paul Cohen, Canadian Journal of History
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