Contenu du sommaire

Totalitarianism, Krzysztof Pomian. Italian Fascism, German Nazism and Russian Bolshevism, considered as ideologies, mass movements and Systems of power under Mussolini, Hitler and Lenin-cum-Stalin, were original political phenomena with features unknown to the classical theories of dictatorship. Despite all differences, they had also significant similarities with far reaching historical effects. They may therefore legitimately be considered as three different manifestations of a single category, totalitarianism. This word was not a product of the Cold War — it results from the attempts made during the interwar period, to find a new name for a new political phenomenon.

Hitler and the birth of totalitarian space, Didier Musiedlak. From his failed art studies to the Third Reich's grand architectural projects, Hitler's passion for space, construction and monuments provides an essential guiding thread to a "thought" which rejected reason in order to emphasize associations of images (people and monuments, race and construction, space and eradication of undesirable occupants), and then inspired political action.

The Paris Belle Epoque lull: inventing a consumption model, François Caron. The economic dynamism of Paris at the time of the Belle Epoque was based both on the development of sectors linked to the second industrialization (electricity, the chemical industry, automobiles) and to the renewal of traditional industries (the garment industry, cosmetics, jewelry) centered on luxury goods and benefiting from a skilled workforce. The rise of factories located in the suburbs led to the reorganization of urban space around these new activities. The progress of hygiene and the development of mass transportation paralleled the general rise of standards of living and increasing access to comfort. With the spread of movies, leisure activities, travel as well as fashion thanks to the departement stores, this dynamism brought about a deep change in consumption habits. It was also fortered by a dynamic entrepreneurial class capable of responding to demand by adapting production and distribution techniques to the social diversity of Paris. Contrary to the pessimistic vision of a "blocked society", a Paris model of "industrial achievement" thus developed, marking the entry of the capital into the consumption society, and an example to the other metropolises of the industrialized world.

Urbanization and exclusion in Paris, 1850-1950, Alain Faure. Public authorities are today worriedly searching for remedies to the urban crises, and invoking history to justify their stands and their reforms. But this call is largely mythical because, in political discourse, the past is not considered in itself : it is seen either as a golden age or as the anteroom of our iron age. This approximate historicism leads to historical errors and erroneous points of view. History is not indispensable to political discourse, but a demystified confrontation of present and past makes possible a better understanding of themes relevant to the past century of Paris history - segregation, exclusion and integration.

French and German Jews in the First World War, Philippe-Efraïm Landau. During the First World War, most Jews in both France and Germany took up the cause of their nation. For each community, the entry intro war carried a patriotic hope. By defending their fatherland, each camp's spokesmen believed they were reinforcing their national integration, beyond the specific and religious Jewish affiliation. In both countries, the war was perceived as a just cause, in France streng-thening democracy, the emancipation of Jews and human rights, and in Germany developing Germanity, a component of Judaism. Like all citizens, on both sides of the Rhine the Jews were nationalistic and bellicose.

Racism and discrimination in France's immigration policy: 1938-1945, Patrick Weil. Since it was designed in the 1930s as a public policy, State action concerning immigration took in France several paths. Between the Third Republic and the Vichy regime, between Vichy and 1945, and between 1945 and 1978, continuities are complex but take up, in various ways, the concept of the immigrants' different potential for assimilation according to origins. In order to follow the itinerary of a French "racialism" of which Georges Mau- co was the herald, it is necessary to take into account the actors' writings and statements as well as the framework of the individual, collective and institutional logic.

Facing immigration: mixophobia, xenophobia or selection. A French interwar debate, Pierre-André Taguieff An analysis of the interwar debate on French immigration policy shows the differences between the tradition of xenophobic nationalism, based on the distinction between the nation and the "stranger", and the pattern of biological and eugenic racialism. The latter model, in the tradition of Vacher de Lapouge and Dr Martial, defined a policy of strongly structured racial selection, even while calling for the welcoming and protection of immigrants.

A trip inside X-Crise, Olivier Dard. While the theses developed by X-Crise have in recent years been rescued from oblivion the internal operation of this prestigious groupe had remained largely unknown. This study of its inner organization shows that its apparent solidity cannot hide its weaknesses, personal divisions and ideological contradictions.

The Alliance démocratique from 1933 to 1937, or anachronism in politics, François Audigier. The Darwinist logic applies to political parties, which must either adapt or perish. Wishing to renovate the venerable Alliance démocratique, Pierre-Etienne Flandin carried out the modernization of this moderate group betwen 1933 and 1937. Limitations and ambiguities doomed this attempt to failure.

Journalists in the interwarperiod : an identity crisis, Christian Delporte. In the 1920s, journalism as a profession went through a deep identity crisis in France. The material problems generated by the First World War revealed a moral crisis with old roots. Giving up their free writer status, journalists wanted to consider themselves as intellectual workers. They adopted structures adapted to their new needs, and formed a union whose aim was vigorous ethical and material improvement. In 1935 they obtained a professional status unmatched in Europe, and in 1936 a professional identity card - both still make up the framework of the profession.

French Christians and Vietnam war (1966), Sabine Rousseau. The publication in Cité nouvelle and Témoignage chrétien, on 21 Aprii 1966, of an appeal to President Johnson marked the French Protestant and Catholic left's entry in the fight against the Vietnam war. Although somewhat late in their mobilization with respect to the Peace Movement, the commitment was early enough considering the dominant silence outside communist and communist sympathizer circles. As a sequel to the struggle for decolonization, this commitment took the original form of a letter to the president of the US. The feeling of Christian responsibility for the history of imperialism overtook the political analysis of the war. After a difficult beginning, the public opinion campaign grew during the summer, favored by the escalation of violence in Vietnam. But to the most committed left Christian militants, the campaign seemed already insufficient. Their radicalization in the fall of 1966 prepared for a mobilization in which the specific Christian commitment gave way to common action with the anti-imperialist movements.