Abstract
Pierre Renouvin left a lasting mark on the study of French diplomatic history during the twentieth century. His influence was felt, not only through his books and articles, but also through his lectures at the Sorbonne during the Fourth and Fifth Republics. Many generations of students sat in crowded amphitheatres and heard him explain how France was fortunate in its natural frontiers, as it was protected by mountains and seas. Only to the east were the plains open. France was also fortunate in its immediate neighbours, who were either small states (such as Switzerland, Belgium and Luxemborg), medium-sized powers which never considered attacking France (Italy and Spain), or Great Britain which was barred from the continent by the sea and which had never possessed a powerful army. Only Germany remained. The only potential enemy.The enemy which had invaded France three times in 70 years.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Reference
Robert Gildea, The Past in French History. (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1994) pp. 119–21.
Antoine Prost, ‘Verdun’, in Pierre Nora, Les Lieux de Mémoire. (Paris: Gallimard, 1997).
Paul Mantoux, Paris Peace Conference 1919: Proceedings of the Council of Four. (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1964) pp. 24–9.
Charles De Gaulle, La Discorde chez l’ennemi. (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1934).
Charles De Gaulle, Discours et messages. vol. 1. (Paris: Plon, 1970).
Jacques Attali, Verbatim III. (Paris: Fayard, 1995) p. 369.
J. C. Hunter, ‘The problem of the French birth-rate on the eve of World War I’, French Historical Studies, (1962) 490–503.
Claude Carlier and Guy Pedroncini, Les Troupes coloniales dans la Grande Guerre. (Paris: Economica, 1997).
Alain Peyrefitte, C’était De Gaulle, vol. 1. (Paris: Fayard, 1994).
Hubert Védrine in Samy Cohen (ed.), Mitterrand et la sortie de la guerre froide. (Paris: Presse Universitaire de France, 1998).
M. Trachtenburg, ‘A New Economic Order: Etienne Clémentel and French Economic Diplomacy during the First World War’, French Historical Studies, X (1977) 315–41.
Anthony Adamthwaite, Grandeur and Misery: France’s Bid for Power in Europe 1914–1919. (London: Edward Arnold, 1995).
Charles S. Maier, ‘The Truth about the Treaties?’, Journal of Modern History, 51, 1 (1979) 56–67.
Jon Jacobson, ‘Strategies of French Foreign Policy after World War I’, Journal of Modern History, 55, 1 (1983) 78–95.
\ Antoine Prost, Les Anciens Combattants et la Société française, 3 vols. (Paris: presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1977).
G. Soutou, L’Impérialisme du pauvre: le politique économique du government français en Europe centrale et orientale de 1918 à 1929, Relations internationale, 7 (1976).
J. F. V. Keiger, Raymond Poincaré. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Charles S. Maier, Recasting Bourgeois Europe. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975).
Stanislas Jeanneson, La France, Poincaré, et la Ruhr 1922–1924. (Paris: Presses Universitaire di Strassbourg, 1997).
Stephen A. Shuker, The End of French Predominance in Europe. (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1976).
François Fetjo, ‘La Petite Entente, la France et Benes’, Vingtième Siècle, January–March (1991) 11–15.
Douglas Johnson, Neville Waites and Maurice Baumont in Neville Waites (ed.), Troubled Neighbours Franco–British Relations in the Twentieth Century. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971).
Anthony Adamthwaite in W. J. Mommsen and L. Kettenacker (eds), The Fascist Challenge and the Policy of Appeasement. (London: Allen and Unwin, 1983).
Sami Cohen, Mitterrand et la sortie de la guerre froide, Douglas Johnson, How European are the French? (Reading, University of Reading Press, 1996).
David Calleo in Patrick McCarthy (ed.) France–Germany 1983–1993. (Basingstoke: Macmillan now Palgrave, 1993).
Edouard Husson, L’Europe centre l’amité Franco-Allemand des malentendus à la discorde, (Paris: F.-X/Guibert, 1998).
Alexandre Adler, ‘L’Allemagne irremplaceable’, L’Express, 26 June 1997.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2002 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, D. (2002). France’s German Question, 1918–1945–1989. In: Levy, C., Roseman, M. (eds) Three Postwar Eras in Comparison. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294134_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294134_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40489-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-29413-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)