Product Description

France and the Great War tells the story of how the French community embarked upon, sustained, and in some ways prevailed in the Great War. Leonard Smith and his co-authors synthesize many years of scholarship, examining the origins of the war from a diplomatic and military viewpoint, before shifting their emphasis to socio-cultural and economic history when discussing the civilian and military war culture. They look at the ‘total’ mobilization of the French national community, as well as the military and civilian crises of 1917, and the ambiguous victory of 1918. The book concludes by revealing how traces of the Great War can still be found in the political and cultural life of the French national community. This lively, accessible and engaging book will be of enormous value to students of the Great War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158563 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 222 pages

Review
‘Written with verve and punctuated by a dry wit, France and the Great War is especially successful when it discusses (in the first and third chapters) the politics, diplomacy, and military dimensions of prewar and wartime France.’ Martha Hanna, H-France

About the Author
LEONARD V. SMITH is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USA.

STÉPHANE AUDOIN-ROUZEAU is Professor of Modern History at the Université de Picardie-Jules Verne, Amiens, France.

ANNETTE BECKER is Professor of Modern History at the Université de Paris X-Nanterre, Nanterre, France.

Customer Reviews

Interesting in parts, ultimately rather disappointing
There are some useful insights in this book, but at times it loses focus about what actually happened at crucial moments of the war from the French point of view. Some parts of the book are, sad to say, rather wishy-washy. It's all very well going on about life in the trenches and the "culture of mourning" that the war produced in France, but what we need to know is - what made France different from the other combatant nations? Didn't the British, Germans, Russians, Austrians, Italians and Serbs mourn, too? The authors would have done better to follow the example of the other book in this series called "Imperial Germany and the Great War" and give us the solid, hard-hitting detail, not a sociological detour.

Useful
I brought this book as it was on my reading list for uni.
Information on French cultural history in WWI is sparse (in english that is) and so this book was very helpful in helping me to understand what went on in France before, during and after the War. Its a useful book and will help anyone who is doing a cultural or socail history of France during the Great War.