Grandeur and misery : France's bid for power in Europe 1914-1940

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Grandeur and misery : France's bid for power in Europe 1914-1940

Anthony Adamthwaite

Arnold : Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press, 1995

  • : hard
  • : pbk

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Grandeur & misery

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: hard ISBN 9780340645307

Description

This work presents an overview and synthesis of recent writing on French foreign policy from the years leading up to 1914 through to the debacle of 1940. It examines the social, economic and strategic pressures - as well as the personalities - that helped to shape French policy, and sets France's predicament in the approach to 1939 in a broader and more satisfactory perspective than those studies that look solely to the 1930s for the origins of World War II. This book is designed to be of interest to students of history, international relations and politics.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780713165760

Description

A central question in European history is how did a great power pre-eminent in 1918 lie defeated by the same enemy less than twenty years later. Until recently the explanation has been sought in fundamental weaknesses that could only leave the French of 1940 hamstrung and demoralized. Recent studies have challenged that view and now, for the first time, the revisionist approach is displayed in a single volume, both summarizing the research of others and drawing on the author's own work in the archives. The book is about as far from 'dry as dust' diplomatic history as it's possible to get. Its very readable and the author manages to show with the telling anecdote that even a serious subject has its comic side: that, for instance, the French High Command kept forces stationed in the Alps for seven years because no one in the foreign service had thought to pass on news about a secret treaty between Italy and France in 1902; or that after a particularly stressful meeting Andrew Bonar Law, the British prime minister, mouth to Poincare, the French president, through the closed carriage window of his train 'and you go to hell', all the while smiling and exuding affability. Such episodes are not the substance of the book, but they oil its progress.

Table of Contents

Illustrations, maps and tables Preface Acknowledgments Chronology Presidents and ministers of France (1914-1940) 1. France and the World 2. Armageddon 3. Peace-making, 1919 4. The Price of Victory 5. A flawed response 6. Predominance, 1919-1924 7. Locarno, 1925 8. Indian summer, 1926-1931 9. Economics, armaments, decision-making 10. Ideology, opinion and foreign policy 11. Challenges, 1932-1936 12. War again, 1936-1939 Epilogue Notes Guide to further reading Index

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