The Extreme Right in Interwar France: The Faisceau and the Croix de Feu

277 Pages·2008·8.164 MB·English

by  Samuel Kalman

THE EXTREME RIGHT IN INTERWAR FRANCE

The Extreme Right in
Interwar France
The Faisceau and the Croix de Feu
SAMUEL KALMAN
St Francis Xavier University, Canada
ASHGATE
© Samuel Kalman 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Samuel Kalman has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House Suite 420
Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 03401-4405
Hampshire GUI 1 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kalman, Samuel
The extreme right in interwar France : the Faisceau and the Croix de feu
1. Faisceau des combattants et des producteurs 2. Croix de feu (Organization : France)
3. Right-wing extremists - France - History - 20th century
4. Radicalism - France - History - 20th century
I. Title
320.5’33’0944’0941
Library of Congress Data
2007045482
ISBN 978-0-7546-6240-2
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
List of Tables vii
Acknowledgements xi
List ofA bbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 Vers un ordre politique nouveau:
Renovating State and Government 13
2 Vers un ordre économique nouveau:
The Traditional and the Modem in the New Economy 61
3 La Politique du foyer.
The Role of Women and the Family in the National Community 111
4 Health, Virility, and Patriotism'.
The Physical and Moral Transformation of Youth 145
5 The Politics of Exclusion:
Jews and Foreigners in the New Nation and State 185
Conclusion 231
Bibliography 239
Index 257

List of Tables
3.1 Salaire Familial I 141
3.2 Salaire Familial II 141

Acknowledgements
This book could not have been written without the support of numerous individuals
and organizations, all of whom assisted in its gestation and completion. This
includes the financial support afforded by two Government of Ontario graduate
scholarships and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
doctoral fellowship, which funded my Ph.D. studies at McMaster University,
including preliminary research for this project in Canada and France. In addition,
I benefited from McMaster’s Richard Fuller Memorial Scholarship for History,
which enabled research trips to Paris that provided the bulk of the archival
material used in writing this book. Subsequent support from the University
Council for Research at St. Francis Xavier University facilitated the collection of
supplementary material in Aix-en-Provence.
My project has received encouragement from numerous mentors and colleagues
over die years. I owe by far the largest debt of gratitude to Wayne Thorpe, who
supervised my Ph.D. dissertation at McMaster, first suggested that I pursue this topic,
and has consistently provided invaluable recommendations concerning subsequent
undertakings. His guidance, intuition, and friendship inform every page of this
effort. The members of my dissertation committee also deserve many thanks. Martin
Horn, the late Robert Johnston, and especially William Irvine all left an indelible
imprint upon my work. A large expression of gratitude is also due to Sean Kennedy,
Sam Goodfellow, Laurent Kestel, Robert Soucy, Cheryl Koos, Will Sweet, Errol
Clauss, and Jerry Pubantz for their readings of various sections of the manuscript,
suggestions for its improvement, and/or advice concerning various aspects of die
publication process. I am similarly grateful to my colleagues in the St. Francis Xavier
Department of History for their encouragement. At Ashgate, Tom Gray, Ann Newell,
Adam Richardson, and Anne Keirby proved equally supportive, nurturing the book
to completion, their suggestions and ideas invariably improving the manuscript. The
latter is equally true of the two anonymous readers, whose corrections and comments
allowed me to avoid awkward errors, while positing new, valuable lines of enquiry.
Hearty thanks are also due to a variety of individuals and institutions in France
and North America, whose assistance facilitated my research during each stage of the
project. This includes Odile Gaultier-Voituriez at the Centre d’histoire de l’Europe
de Vingtième-Siècle (now the Centre d’histoire de Sciences-Po) in Paris, Daniel
Hick and the staff at the Archives d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, and a variety
of persons at the Archives Nationales, Bibliothèque Nationale, Archives of the Paris
Prefecture of Police, and the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine. I am
indebted to the late Gilles de la Rocque for permission to consult his father’s papers
at the AN and CHEVS, and to Jacques Nobécourt for useful suggestions concerning
research at the latter institution. Further thanks are due to the inter-library loan
personnel at St. Francis Xavier University, Salem College, and McMaster University,
X The Extreme Right in Interwar France
and particularly the late Susan Taylor at Salem, who tirelessly tracked down the most
arcane materials with incredible ease.
I wish to further thank the editors of Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques
for graciously allowing me to reproduce material from my article “Parasites from
all Civilizations: The Croix de Feu/Parti social français Confronts French Jewry“,
to Sage Publications for permission to republish material from my article “Faisceau
Visions of Physical and Moral Transformation and the Cult of Youth in Interwar
France”, European History Quarterly 33 (2003): 343-366, to Oxford University
Press for permitting me to reprint passages from my article “Reconsidering Fascist
Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in 1920s France: The Doctrinal Contribution of
Georges Valois and the Faisceau”, French History, 16 (2002): 345-365, and to the
Western Society for French History for permission to republish portions of “Vers un
ordre économique nouveau: Conflict Between the Modem and the Traditional in the
Croix de Feu/Parti social français Economic Vision”, Proceedings of the Western
Society for French History, Vol. 27 (Greeley: University Press of Colorado, 2001).
Finally, I must offer profound thanks to friends and family for their unwavering
support and enthusiasm at every stage of the project’s development. Those who have
patiently listened to me prattle on about the extreme right in interwar France include
Neil Mayers, Peter Ferguson, Aaron Farrell, Milena Kras, Geoff Spurr, Derek Neal,
Graeme Clyke, Laurie Lemmond, Rob Wickham, and Christie Lomore. I further
owe a tremendous debt to my late mother Judith, father Calvin, and brother Ben for
their consistent encouragement throughout my scholarly career. Last but certainly
not least, I offer the greatest affection to my very best friends: my wife Brenda and
son Josh, whose love and inspiration is more valuable than words can say. Without
you, the successful completion of this project would be truly meaningless.