Contenu du sommaire

The United States and the Conquest of the Moon, Jean-Marc Trochon. In 1961, President Kennedy asserted that an American would set foot on the moon by 1970. The goal was far from being scientific only. At the heart of the cold war, it was a question of a technological challenge to show the United States' power. The implications were as much technical and scientific as political and economic. By walking on the moon on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong guaranteed American success. However, the development of the moon program was complex and marked by many technical problems to which were added financial and political difficulties. Apollo was not unanimously supported in the United States and it was hotly debated. Many facts remain to be discovered about this major event in the history of humanity.

The United States and Mexico: a stormy alliance, Isabelle Vagnoux. Ever since the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and the ensuing Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the relationships between Mexico and the United States have been marked by constant tensions, anti-American feelings, racist prejudices and conflicts of all kinds. Yet, geographically close though psychologically distant neighbors, the two countries have become increasingly interdependent over the years. With the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, this interdependence has reached a climax. As was made clear by the peso crisis of December 1994, Washington cannot remain indifferent to Mexico's woes, and in turn, Mexico is regularly affected by US decisions. This study focuses on the main issues that have kept dividing and at the same time uniting the two countries since 1945, i.e. economic relations, immigration, drug trafficking and foreign policy.

The Decades of Pontigny (1910-1939), François Chaubet. In 1910, during a time in which international scientific meetings were in great fashion, the Decades of Pontigny reflected on the role of intellectuals in a mass democratic society. These periodic residential meetings of intellectuals held in a remote place were inspired by several models of sociability and brought together a relatively big number of people, considering the subjects taken up. After the first World War, they played a non-negligible role in the European intellectual community, or at least in a Franco-German rapprochement. In the 1930s, they led to a critical reflection on totalitarian regimes.

Citroën and Innovation (1915-1996), Jean-Louis Loubet. From its inception, Citroën made industrial innovation one of the centerpie- ces of its strategy. Its beginnings were marked by the introduction and then the development of OST (scientific organization of work) and Ford factory-inspired techniques in car manufacturing in France. The 1930s crisis, which hit the company very hard, led to a deep questioning of those techniques and to the possibility of creating a less rigid productive system better adapted to a tight market. And while Reconstruction scrambled the cards by making Ford techniques the one and only way for car manufacturing. Citroën continued, during the years of growth and even more with the crisis of the 1980s, to look for an alternative.

The Awakeningof Breton Catholics (1924-1926), David Bensoussan. The victory of the Cartel of the Left and the possibility of a new anti-clerical offensive provoked the consternation of the Breton Catholic world. Rapidly mobilized, the conservative forces and the clergy organized resistance. The Catholic protest produced big popular demonstrations showing the persistence of a political culture deeply hostile to the republican model. This mobilization around the defense of Catholic school did not, however, preclude strains within the Breton Catholic world, torn between conservative forces led by the old guard and a strong democrat-Christian minority, more open to political modernity.

Jewish Students at the Polytechnique School (1940-1943). The Recovery of an identity, Vincent Guigueno. In the fall of 1940, the Polytechnique School was evacuated to the south zone and lost its military status. A new organization redefined the school's mission and what would happen to the Jewish candidates accepted before and during the war. The development of the school during the war shows a contradiction between the life of and at the school, its history, and the cyclical repetition of its studies, and the life grasped in the daily understanding of the facts and of the memory of recent events, private or public: acceptance at the school, the war, and Vichy.

National Popular Theater at the time of Jean Vilar (1951-1963), Emmanuelle Loyer. Following a long tradition going back to the French revolution, Jean Vilar's national theater was dedicated to service to the people. He carried out an effective policy to attract the people and renewed the classic repertory in an original way. For him the theater was an explicit form of commitment to the left. This gave him an incontestable success, especially as in France the theater traditionally represents a political and social stake. Conceived as a public service, the TNP knit close ties with the State, considering that it had duties toward its citizens' culture. For Jean Vilar, the theater belonged to the life of a human being; it was as vital as living and eating. But of the role of who decided which culture was the right one were born the ambiguities and difficulties of a form of theater denounced in 1968.

Army and Justice in the Algerian War, Sylvie Thénault. The Algerian war brought about an unprecedented transfer of jurisdiction from civil towards military justice, allowing military courts to judge thousands of accused people. Under general de Gaulle, the army's judicial power was strengthened with the institution of military prosecu- tors. One of their official missions was to keep an eye on what was going on in the army. But without a strong determination and means of action, these conscripted judges failed to stop the army's illegal practices and their history confirmed the subordination of justice to the "necessities" of the fight against the "subversive war."