Contenu du sommaire : Varia

From Denazification to the Reintegration of Civil Servants: Establishing a Code of Ethics for Public Service in West Germany after 1945. This article is part of a larger historiographic renewal looking at the political cleansing of Germany after 1945. Whereas early works on the subject had condemned the limits of denazification in Western Germany during the Allies' military occupation, historians have more recently examined the cleansing phenomenon over several decades and have re-evaluated its scope by taking into account all of its dimensions (criminal, administrative, disciplinary). This article also analyses several internal disciplinary proceedings of the public service sector conducted in West Germany after1949, in particular against civil servants whose were believed by their peers to be too deeply entrenched in Nazism to be reintegrated in society (for example, those accused of crimes against humanity). Analysing contemporary normative discourse reveals how the civil service sought to reconstruct its professional code of ethics in the service of democracy.

The Coal Miners Strikes (France, Autumn 1948). The coal miners' strike in the fall of 1948 has often been seen as the symbolic beginning of the Cold War in France. To date, however, only a limited number of historical works have examined this important event. By consulting the many archives available, this article seeks to understand this conflict, which can be reduced neither to the effects of Communist manipulation, nor to spontaneous ideological class action. On the contrary, the 1948 coal miners' strike was a complex social and political movement, governed by varying temporal and geographical logics. This analysis in particular attempts to elucidate the extreme violence that defined this conflict, and which erupted not only in the relationships between the coal miners and the State, but also among the coalminers themselves.

Using Individual Trajectories to Study the Labour Market: The Case of Tunisian Migrants in the Parisian Region during the “Trente Glorieuses”. Heirs to the multicultural “mosaic” introduced by colonial society, migrants from Tunisia who settled in the Parisian region after the 1950s offer an extraordinary opportunity for studying job discrimination. Longitudinal analysis of matched firm-employee data enables us to examine labour mobility and social inequality in a new light. This study highlights the extent of job discrimination based on nationality and gender in a segmented labour market, and the prevalence of insecure and temporary employment at a time usually regarded as the golden age of high-wage work and stable employment.

Corsica, its Dead and the First World War. Long subject to historical interpretations born under the sign of different national identities (French, Italian and Corsican), statistical assessments of the fatalities during the First World War in Corsica continue to be subject to controversy. This article focuses on the elaboration and the stakes of these multiple accounts, as well as their impact on the image that Corsicans have of themselves. A factor promoting the establishment of French identity in Corsica and a foil to Italian hopes during the interwar period, in the 1980s, the overestimation of the number of victims turned against its promoters and was in fact exploited by Corsican nationalists. The argument surrounding the numbers therefore continues unabated today.

Celebration and Colonial Order: Centenaries and Anticolonialist Resistance in Algeria during the 1930s. The triumphalist celebrations held in 1930 to commemorate the centenary of the French landing in Algeria have often been viewed as a turning point in Algerian colonial history. This article re-examines these celebratory events by considering them in a larger chronological context. The centenary in fact set off a wave of festivities across several Algerian cities, constituting so many public fora for the political struggles of the 1930s. Focussing on native reactions (rumours, reinterpretations, boycotts, etc.), this article argues that this series of centennial celebrations served as a testing ground for anticolonial resistance, where different activist strategies were gradually shaped, tested and put into practice.

Revisiting the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933. This paper analyses the decision-making processes and the political mechanisms which led to the famine in Ukraine and the North Caucasus and, furthermore, to its intentional degeneration. The author focuses on the crucial period between the end of the summer of 1932 and the beginning of 1933. He revisits some of the questions hotly debated by both Russian and Ukrainian historians: the aims pursued by Stalinist leaders; the issue of food assistance provided at the eleventh hour to some, but not all, segments of the starving population; the uniqueness of the Ukrainian famine in relation to other famines which afflicted different regions of the Soviet Union at that time; and the legal classification of the Ukrainian famine.

Washington faced with Communist participation in the Italian government (1973-1979). In the 1970s, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was at the vanguard of Euro-communism, a movement wherein some Western European Communist Parties embraced democratic principles and distanced themselves from Moscow. Far from reassuring American leaders, these developments fed their fears. For American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, these so-called moderate Communists were actually ‘more dangerous', since they were more likely to be democratically elected than their hard-line Leninist counterparts: hence the fierce opposition to any kind of ‘historical compromise' between the Italian Communist Party and Christian Democrats. Following Jimmy Carter's inauguration as president in January 1977, the Carter administration relaxed its attitude somewhat, before reverting to more clear-cut opposition.

The Long March of the Mao Suit: A Revolution of Appearances and Appearances of Revolution. The ultimate emblem of Maoism, the “Mao suit” became the uniform of China's Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Once exported to France, it was appropriated by pro-Chinese activists, by the Parisian intellectuals of Tel Quel and by members of the internationalized jet-set. With its spare, austere lines, the suit metamorphosed into a symbol of both revolutionary distinction and ostentatious elitism. Stripped of its ideological connotations, it was integrated into Western fashion, fuelling the imagination of some of the most creative designers. The “Mao suit” symbolised the cross-exchanges which characterized Maoist China and its rise to the rank of political mythology in France, overlaid with revolutionary aspirations and hints of Orientalism.