Abstract
This study examines the relationship between French intellectuals and politics from the end of the nineteenth century up to and including the Occupation. In this introduction I shall first explore the usage and connotation of the term ‘intellectual’ in France, and by contrast in Britain. I shall then briefly explain my choice of the French intellectuals on whom this study concentrates before concluding with an overview of the political activities of French intellectuals from the 1890s until the Liberation.
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Introduction
J. Guéhenno, Journal des années noires (1940–1944), Gallimard, 1947, p. 205. Quote brought to my attention by Jennifer Lefevre.
K. Reader, ‘The Intellectuals: Notes towards a Comparative Study of Their Position in the Social Formations of France and Britain’, Media, Culture and Society, 1982 (4), pp. 263–73, p. 266.
M. Leymarie, Les Intellectuels et la politique, Presses Universitaires de France (Collection Que sais-je?), 2001, p. 11.
J.-P. Sartre, ‘Plaidoyer pour les intellectuels’, in J.-P. Sartre, Situations VIII, Gallimard, 1972, p. 377.
For a recent study on female intellectuals, see N. Racine and M. Trebitsch, Intellectuelles. Du genre en histoire des intellectuels, Éditions Complexe, 2004.
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© 2005 David Drake
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Drake, D. (2005). Introduction. In: French Intellectuals and Politics from the Dreyfus Affair to the Occupation. French Politics, Society and Culture Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230006096_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230006096_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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