The Embrace Of Unreason France 19141940

"From acclaimed biographer and cultural historian, author of For the Soul of France ("Masterful history...hard to put down."-Henry Kissinger); Zola ("Magnificent." --The New Yorker); and Flaubert ("Impeccable."-James Wood, cover, The New York Times Book Review)-a brilliant reconsideration of the events and the political, social, and religious movements that led to France's embrace of Fascism and anti-Semitism. Frederick Brown explores the tumultuous forces unleashed by the Dreyfus Affair, and examines how the clashing ideologies and the blood-soaked political scandals and artistic movements following the horror of World War I resulted in the country's era of militant authoritarianism; and how rioting, violent racism, and nationalistic fervor overtook France's sense of reason, sealed its fate, and led to the rise of the Vichy government. We see how the French intelligentsia turned away from the humanistic traditions and rationalistic ideals of the Enlightenment in favor of submission to authority that stressed patriotism, militarism, and xenophobia; how French conservatives attempted to rebuild and reshape the country's collective identity as the German threat loomed, as mistrust of