French history

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/17/2022
  

  France's Return of 24 Skulls to Algeria Wasn't What it Seemed

  The French and Algerian governments have both played up the gesture of reconciliation, without acknowledging that the provenance of the remains is dubious (only 6 are documented to be the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters) and they remain French property. 

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• SOURCE: Kansas City Star
  10/2/2022
  

  Sex, Society and Scandal in 19th Century France

  Historian Sarah Horowitz found the tale of Marguerite Steinheil too juicy to confine to an academic book, though the scandal shows how women navigated sex and inequality at the end of the nineteenth century. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/10/2022
  

  Philippe Pétain's Legacy Haunts the Island Where He's Buried

  The current French history wars have drawn battle lines over whether Pétain's service in the first world war or his collaboration during the second should be remembered. 

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• SOURCE: Tablet
  6/28/2022
  

  A Legend of Innocence

  by Daniel Solomon

  Both the French left and right are impeding the teaching of how 75,000 French Jews were turned over to the Nazis. 

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• SOURCE: Forward
  5/16/2022
  

  Zemmour Acquitted of Holocaust Denial after Crediting Nazi Collaborator with Saving Jews

  While there is substantial disagreement on whether Vichy leader Philippe Pétain's decision to turn over foreign-born Jews to the Nazis was motivated by a desire to save French Jews, a court ruled that the right-wing provocateur did not engage in Holocaust denial by endorsing that view. 

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• SOURCE: Journal of Democracy
  4/19/2022
  

  To Save la République, Macron Can't Ignore the Left

  by Moshik Temkin

  Macron's centrist strategy in the face of a rising far right is dangerous, but reflects the long turn to the center by the Socialist Party. Can he expect left-leaning constituencies to once again vote to save France from fascism while getting nothing in return? 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  2/14/2022
  

  The Enlightenment Precursor of the Social Media "Wife Guy"

  by Meghan Roberts

  The "wife guy" who self-servingly projects an image of domestic bliss and romantic devotion is not just a creation of the social media age. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/11/2022
  

  France's Socialists Adopted Neoliberalism and Punched their Tickets to Irrelevance

  "What was the history that brought the French left to its current state of crisis, and does it show what other countries are going to experience in the future?"

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/3/2021
  

  Josephine Baker's Induction to the Pantheon Shouldn't Obscure how Other Black Women Served Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

  by Rachel Anne Gillett

  "Even as White European audiences fell in love with her, Black women in France criticized her and the system that lifted her up."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/2/2021
  

  In Zemmour, France's Old Bigotry Finds New Voice

  by Mitchell Abidor and Miguel Lago

  Presidential candidate Éric Zemmour's Jewishness should not be a shield for his manipulation of France's historical bigotries for political gain.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  11/30/2021
  

  Josephine Baker First American, Black Woman, and Performer Inducted to French Pantheon

  "in 1963, Baker addressed the crowd at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She wore her French Resistance uniform with the string of medals across her breast."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/16/2021
  

  Macron Commemorates 1961 Killing of Algerian Protesters by Paris Police

  Fabrice Riceputi, a historian of the Algerian War who has written about the killings, described the events of Oct. 17 as “a peak in a period of state terror that is inflicted on the colonized people.”

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  8/23/2021
  

  Web of Connections: Emma Rothschild's Microhistories of France

  by David A. Bell

  Historian David Bell reviews an effort to relate three centuries of French history through the lives of the descendants of one undistinguished eighteenth century Frenchwoman. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  8/16/2021
  

  Why Don't the French Celebrate Lafayette?

  Two new books examine the life and legacy of the Marquis de Lafayette, whose reputation in the United States far exceeds his esteem in his native France. 

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• 7/25/2021
  

  The Difference a Day Makes: Robespierre's 9 Thermidor

  by Colin Jones

  The eventful 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) is seen as a pivotal day for French Revolution. Colin Jones digs deep into the archival documentation of the day and argues that the day's significance is real but misunderstood. 

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• 6/20/2021
  

  Recovering the Stories of Pioneering Frenchwomen of Science

  by Nina Gelbart

  The stories of six French women of science show that women have been part of the scientific revolution from the beginning, and that moving toward gender parity in professional science is imperative.

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• SOURCE: Blue Book Diaries
  5/10/2021
  

  “Essentially an Evil Thing”

  by Jonathan Wilson

  Recent European controversies over the veneration of historical figures have considered war consequentially, as a means of achieving national ends. It's time to think of war, as the Nuremberg judges did, as an intrinsic evil. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/5/2021
  

  France Battles Over Whether to "Cancel" or Celebrate Napoleon

  French President Macron will place a wreath on the former Emperor's tomb to commemorate the bicentennial of his death, as French citizens debate his legacy including his contempt for Republicanism both in independent Haiti and in France itself.

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  4/27/2021
  

  Pandemic Lessons From the Era of ‘Les Miserables’

  Medical historian Ed Cohen describes the 1832 cholera outbreak as "imperial blowback," as the disease arrived in Europe from their colonies. Nearly 2% of the city's population died, but the aftermath saw an increase in migration from the countryside and a flourishing of public health-oriented planning. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/19/2021
  

  France Enabled 1994 Rwanda Genocide, Report Says

  A Rwandan government commission has concluded that the government of France supported the leaders of genocide in Rwanda to sustain its own influence. This goes a step beyond a recent French government report that identified French involvement in virulent ethnic politics but not in genocide.