French Socialism In The Crisis Years 1933 1936

Based on documents collected in six European countries, European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s is a transnational study of largely parallel developments in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain in the years 1933-1936. Triggered into action by the shock effect of the Nazi rise to power in Germany, socialists throughout Western Europe entered an unusually active period of practical reorientation and debate over political strategy which helped determine the contours of European politics up to the outbreak of World War II and beyond. Stressing the transnational dimension of this process while simultaneously integrating local, regional, and national factors, this work finds that it was social democracy, rather than communism, that acted as the primary vehicle for radical change among European marxists during the 1930s. Following major figures within the European left and the significant events that made up the inter-war period, Gerd-Rainer Horn demonstrates the interconnectedness of Europe's interwar socialists. Finally, Horn manages to relate these findings to the ongoing interdisciplinary debate on structure, agency, and contingency in the historical process.

John Colton is a meticulous researcher and a fine craftsman. In his political biography of Leon Blum, these two qualities are beautiully blended; none of the available evidence appears to have been over looked, and the enormous mass of variegated material has been transmuted in a polished, richly tapestried, and absorbing narrative.

This is a serious and accomplished synthesis. . . . Biographical vignettes enliven the presentation of ideas, and references to studies of regional diversities . . . give the narrative an uncommonly rich texture. . . . Lucid and illuminating. . . . It is the best book on the subject to put into the hands of our students.--Helmut Gruber, International Labor and Working Class History A synthetic narrative by a young academic scholar . . . who has independent ideas on an important subject. . . . This book is worth reading if for no other reason than its modest, but nonpatronizing rehabilitation from generations of Marxist caricature of a host of deeply democratic European socialists.--James H. Billington, Washington Post Book World One asset of this book is its lack of the overbearing personal partisanship one finds in so many historical studies of socialism. . . . [Lindeman incorporates] some recent and inaccessible studies in social history written 'from the bottom up.'--David D'Arcy, World View As a whole, Lindemann offers a more balanced treatment of the ideas and the movement of socialism than found in many extant histories. . . . A must for all college and university libraries.--Choice A competent and fair-minded study of a controversial subject. It presents much factual material and judicious interpretation in lucid prose.--L. S. Stavrianos, Los Angeles Times Book Review

By the end of World War I, in November 1918, Europe’s old authoritarian empires had fallen, and new and seemingly democratic governments were rising from the debris. As successor states found their place on the map, many hoped that a more liberal Europe would emerge. But this post-war idealism all too quickly collapsed under the political and economic pressures of the 1920s and '30s. Howard M. Sachar chronicles this visionary and tempestuous era by examining the fortunes of Europe’s Jewish minority, a group whose precarious status made them particularly sensitive to changes in the social order. Writing with characteristic lucidity and verve, Sachar spotlights an array of charismatic leaders–from Hungarian Communist Bela Kun to Germany’s Rosa Luxemburg, France’s Socialist Prime Minister Léon Blum and Austria’s Sigmund Freud–whose collective experience foretold significant democratic failures long before the Nazi rise to power. In the richness of its human tapestry and the acuity of its social insights, Dreamland masterfully expands our understanding of a watershed era in modern history.

This book examines debates about the formation of French economic policy during the Great Depression.