Author: Benjamin F. Martin
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807124949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
The Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and the violent controversies that surrounded it appeared to pass two very different judgments on the France of the Third Republic. The outcome o the trial—Captain Dreyfus convicted without guilt and the real traitor acquitted despite guilt—demonstrated without question the extraordinary hypocrisy of the military justice system. But the furor raised by Dreyfus' conviction and the agitation for his release suggested that the injustice of the courts' verdict was uncharacteristic of French society; that for France as a nation the rendering of justice was paramount, even at the expense of disgracing both the military and a conspiring government. In The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque, Benjamin Martin examines the events of three sensational criminal cases to reveal that the willful mangling of justice that occurred in the Dreyfus trial was far from rare in the Third Republic France. He finds, in fact, that justice in the Belle Epoque was "hypocritical in the extreme," with the outcome of trials easily tainted by the power and influence of politics, money, and illicit sex. At times, justice deviated so far from the ideal that its goal was not the strict application of the law or even the discovery of the truth, but rather the imposition of a system of rewards and punishments meted out in accordance with a capricious vision of social utility. Martin begins with the case of Marguerite Steinheil, the wife of an artist of only middling talent. A strikingly beautiful woman, she presided over a famous salon and was the lover of influential politicians. When she was tried for the brutal murders of her husband and her mother, Marguerite defended herself with a flurry of extravagant stories and unlikely counter-accusations. Even so, she was found innocent of all charges, and the crimes were left unsolved. The second trial considered is that of Thérèse Humbert, a young woman who used an apparently innate talent for elaborate deception in rising from poverty to the upper reaches of Parisian society. With the aid of her husband and her brothers, Thérèse created a series of specious lawsuits over an illusory American legacy. Then, playing on the greed of dozens of investors, she skillfully manipulated the French courts to perpetrate a fraud that would last for twenty years, yield millions, and make her salon one of the most dazzling in Europe until the day when the ruse was finally found out. The third case is that of Henriette Caillaux, the wife of an important leader in the Radical party. She admitted shooting Gaston Calmette, the influential newspaper editor who had been carrying out a campaign of vilification against her husband. But when she was tried for the murder in 1914, Henriette was found innocent and allowed to go free. The sensational trials of Marguerit Steinheil, Thérèse Humbert, and Henriette Caillaux mirrored in many the stalemate society of the Belle Epoque itself. By examining the hypocrisy of justice in the Third Republic, Benjamin Martin uncovers the vast extent of that society's corruption, the amorality and sordidness that were cloaked only partially by the mantle of respectability.
The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque
Author: Benjamin F. Martin
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807124949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
The Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and the violent controversies that surrounded it appeared to pass two very different judgments on the France of the Third Republic. The outcome o the trial—Captain Dreyfus convicted without guilt and the real traitor acquitted despite guilt—demonstrated without question the extraordinary hypocrisy of the military justice system. But the furor raised by Dreyfus' conviction and the agitation for his release suggested that the injustice of the courts' verdict was uncharacteristic of French society; that for France as a nation the rendering of justice was paramount, even at the expense of disgracing both the military and a conspiring government. In The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque, Benjamin Martin examines the events of three sensational criminal cases to reveal that the willful mangling of justice that occurred in the Dreyfus trial was far from rare in the Third Republic France. He finds, in fact, that justice in the Belle Epoque was "hypocritical in the extreme," with the outcome of trials easily tainted by the power and influence of politics, money, and illicit sex. At times, justice deviated so far from the ideal that its goal was not the strict application of the law or even the discovery of the truth, but rather the imposition of a system of rewards and punishments meted out in accordance with a capricious vision of social utility. Martin begins with the case of Marguerite Steinheil, the wife of an artist of only middling talent. A strikingly beautiful woman, she presided over a famous salon and was the lover of influential politicians. When she was tried for the brutal murders of her husband and her mother, Marguerite defended herself with a flurry of extravagant stories and unlikely counter-accusations. Even so, she was found innocent of all charges, and the crimes were left unsolved. The second trial considered is that of Thérèse Humbert, a young woman who used an apparently innate talent for elaborate deception in rising from poverty to the upper reaches of Parisian society. With the aid of her husband and her brothers, Thérèse created a series of specious lawsuits over an illusory American legacy. Then, playing on the greed of dozens of investors, she skillfully manipulated the French courts to perpetrate a fraud that would last for twenty years, yield millions, and make her salon one of the most dazzling in Europe until the day when the ruse was finally found out. The third case is that of Henriette Caillaux, the wife of an important leader in the Radical party. She admitted shooting Gaston Calmette, the influential newspaper editor who had been carrying out a campaign of vilification against her husband. But when she was tried for the murder in 1914, Henriette was found innocent and allowed to go free. The sensational trials of Marguerit Steinheil, Thérèse Humbert, and Henriette Caillaux mirrored in many the stalemate society of the Belle Epoque itself. By examining the hypocrisy of justice in the Third Republic, Benjamin Martin uncovers the vast extent of that society's corruption, the amorality and sordidness that were cloaked only partially by the mantle of respectability.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807124949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
The Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and the violent controversies that surrounded it appeared to pass two very different judgments on the France of the Third Republic. The outcome o the trial—Captain Dreyfus convicted without guilt and the real traitor acquitted despite guilt—demonstrated without question the extraordinary hypocrisy of the military justice system. But the furor raised by Dreyfus' conviction and the agitation for his release suggested that the injustice of the courts' verdict was uncharacteristic of French society; that for France as a nation the rendering of justice was paramount, even at the expense of disgracing both the military and a conspiring government. In The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque, Benjamin Martin examines the events of three sensational criminal cases to reveal that the willful mangling of justice that occurred in the Dreyfus trial was far from rare in the Third Republic France. He finds, in fact, that justice in the Belle Epoque was "hypocritical in the extreme," with the outcome of trials easily tainted by the power and influence of politics, money, and illicit sex. At times, justice deviated so far from the ideal that its goal was not the strict application of the law or even the discovery of the truth, but rather the imposition of a system of rewards and punishments meted out in accordance with a capricious vision of social utility. Martin begins with the case of Marguerite Steinheil, the wife of an artist of only middling talent. A strikingly beautiful woman, she presided over a famous salon and was the lover of influential politicians. When she was tried for the brutal murders of her husband and her mother, Marguerite defended herself with a flurry of extravagant stories and unlikely counter-accusations. Even so, she was found innocent of all charges, and the crimes were left unsolved. The second trial considered is that of Thérèse Humbert, a young woman who used an apparently innate talent for elaborate deception in rising from poverty to the upper reaches of Parisian society. With the aid of her husband and her brothers, Thérèse created a series of specious lawsuits over an illusory American legacy. Then, playing on the greed of dozens of investors, she skillfully manipulated the French courts to perpetrate a fraud that would last for twenty years, yield millions, and make her salon one of the most dazzling in Europe until the day when the ruse was finally found out. The third case is that of Henriette Caillaux, the wife of an important leader in the Radical party. She admitted shooting Gaston Calmette, the influential newspaper editor who had been carrying out a campaign of vilification against her husband. But when she was tried for the murder in 1914, Henriette was found innocent and allowed to go free. The sensational trials of Marguerit Steinheil, Thérèse Humbert, and Henriette Caillaux mirrored in many the stalemate society of the Belle Epoque itself. By examining the hypocrisy of justice in the Third Republic, Benjamin Martin uncovers the vast extent of that society's corruption, the amorality and sordidness that were cloaked only partially by the mantle of respectability.
The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque
Author: Benjamin F. Martin
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807153788
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and the violent controversies that surrounded it appeared to pass two very different judgments on the France of the Third Republic. The outcome o the trial -- Captain Dreyfus convicted without guilt and the real traitor acquitted despite guilt -- demonstrated without question the extraordinary hypocrisy of the military justice system. But the furor raised by Dreyfus' conviction and the agitation for his release suggested that the injustice of the courts' verdict was uncharacteristic of French society; that for France as a nation the rendering of justice was paramount, even at the expense of disgracing both the military and a conspiring government. In The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque, Benjamin Martin examines the events of three sensational criminal cases to reveal that the willful mangling of justice that occurred in the Dreyfus trial was far from rare in the Third Republic France. He finds, in fact, that justice in the Belle Epoque was "hypocritical in the extreme," with the outcome of trials easily tainted by the power and influence of politics, money, and illicit sex. At times, justice deviated so far from the ideal that its goal was not the strict application of the law or even the discovery of the truth, but rather the imposition of a system of rewards and punishments meted out in accordance with a capricious vision of social utility. Martin begins with the case of Marguerite Steinheil, the wife of an artist of only middling talent. A strikingly beautiful woman, she presided over a famous salon and was the lover of influential politicians. When she was tried for the brutal murders of her husband and her mother, Marguerite defended herself with a flurry of extravagant stories and unlikely counter-accusations. Even so, she was found innocent of all charges, and the crimes were left unsolved. The second trial considered is that of Thérèse Humbert, a young woman who used an apparently innate talent for elaborate deception in rising from poverty to the upper reaches of Parisian society. With the aid of her husband and her brothers, Thérèse created a series of specious lawsuits over an illusory American legacy. Then, playing on the greed of dozens of investors, she skillfully manipulated the French courts to perpetrate a fraud that would last for twenty years, yield millions, and make her salon one of the most dazzling in Europe until the day when the ruse was finally found out. The third case is that of Henriette Caillaux, the wife of an important leader in the Radical party. She admitted shooting Gaston Calmette, the influential newspaper editor who had been carrying out a campaign of vilification against her husband. But when she was tried for the murder in 1914, Henriette was found innocent and allowed to go free. The sensational trials of Marguerit Steinheil, Thérèse Humbert, and Henriette Caillaux mirrored in many the stalemate society of the Belle Epoque itself. By examining the hypocrisy of justice in the Third Republic, Benjamin Martin uncovers the vast extent of that society's corruption, the amorality and sordidness that were cloaked only partially by the mantle of respectability.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807153788
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and the violent controversies that surrounded it appeared to pass two very different judgments on the France of the Third Republic. The outcome o the trial -- Captain Dreyfus convicted without guilt and the real traitor acquitted despite guilt -- demonstrated without question the extraordinary hypocrisy of the military justice system. But the furor raised by Dreyfus' conviction and the agitation for his release suggested that the injustice of the courts' verdict was uncharacteristic of French society; that for France as a nation the rendering of justice was paramount, even at the expense of disgracing both the military and a conspiring government. In The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque, Benjamin Martin examines the events of three sensational criminal cases to reveal that the willful mangling of justice that occurred in the Dreyfus trial was far from rare in the Third Republic France. He finds, in fact, that justice in the Belle Epoque was "hypocritical in the extreme," with the outcome of trials easily tainted by the power and influence of politics, money, and illicit sex. At times, justice deviated so far from the ideal that its goal was not the strict application of the law or even the discovery of the truth, but rather the imposition of a system of rewards and punishments meted out in accordance with a capricious vision of social utility. Martin begins with the case of Marguerite Steinheil, the wife of an artist of only middling talent. A strikingly beautiful woman, she presided over a famous salon and was the lover of influential politicians. When she was tried for the brutal murders of her husband and her mother, Marguerite defended herself with a flurry of extravagant stories and unlikely counter-accusations. Even so, she was found innocent of all charges, and the crimes were left unsolved. The second trial considered is that of Thérèse Humbert, a young woman who used an apparently innate talent for elaborate deception in rising from poverty to the upper reaches of Parisian society. With the aid of her husband and her brothers, Thérèse created a series of specious lawsuits over an illusory American legacy. Then, playing on the greed of dozens of investors, she skillfully manipulated the French courts to perpetrate a fraud that would last for twenty years, yield millions, and make her salon one of the most dazzling in Europe until the day when the ruse was finally found out. The third case is that of Henriette Caillaux, the wife of an important leader in the Radical party. She admitted shooting Gaston Calmette, the influential newspaper editor who had been carrying out a campaign of vilification against her husband. But when she was tried for the murder in 1914, Henriette was found innocent and allowed to go free. The sensational trials of Marguerit Steinheil, Thérèse Humbert, and Henriette Caillaux mirrored in many the stalemate society of the Belle Epoque itself. By examining the hypocrisy of justice in the Third Republic, Benjamin Martin uncovers the vast extent of that society's corruption, the amorality and sordidness that were cloaked only partially by the mantle of respectability.
The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque
Author: Benjamin F. Martin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780783785028
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780783785028
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
Post-Transitional Justice
Author: Cath Collins
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271036885
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
"Analyzes how activists, legal strategies, and judicial receptivity to human rights claims are constructing new accountability outcomes for human rights violations in Chile and El Salvador"--Provided by publisher.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271036885
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
"Analyzes how activists, legal strategies, and judicial receptivity to human rights claims are constructing new accountability outcomes for human rights violations in Chile and El Salvador"--Provided by publisher.
Sex, Violence, and the Avant-garde
Author: Richard David Sonn
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 027103663X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
Sex, Violence, and the Avant-Garde examines the French anarchist movement between the wars from a socio-cultural perspective, considering the relationship between anarchism and the artistic avant-garde and surrealism, political violence and terrorism, sexuality and sexual politics, and gender roles.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 027103663X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
Sex, Violence, and the Avant-Garde examines the French anarchist movement between the wars from a socio-cultural perspective, considering the relationship between anarchism and the artistic avant-garde and surrealism, political violence and terrorism, sexuality and sexual politics, and gender roles.
Career Stories
Author: Juliette M. Rogers
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271034971
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
In Career Stories, Juliette Rogers considers a body of largely unexamined novels from the Belle Époque that defy the usual categories allowed the female protagonist of the period. While most literary studies of the Belle Époque (1880–1914) focus on the conventional housewife or harlot distinction for female protagonists, the heroines investigated in Career Stories are professional lawyers, doctors, teachers, writers, archeologists, and scientists. In addition to the one well-known woman writer from the Belle Époque, Colette, this study will expand our knowledge of relatively unknown authors, including Gabrielle Reval, Marcelle Tinayre, and Colette Yver, who actively participated in contemporary debates on women's possible roles in the public domain and in professional careers during this period. Career Stories seeks to understand early twentieth century France by examining novels written about professional women, bourgeois and working-class heroines, and the particular dilemmas that they faced. This book contributes a new facet to literary histories of the Belle Époque: a subgenre of the bildungsroman that flourished briefly during the first decade of the twentieth century in France. Rogers terms this subgenre the female berufsroman, or novel of women's professional development. Career Stories will change the way we think about the Belle Époque and the interwar period in French literary history, because these women writers and their novels changed the direction that fiction writing would take in post-World War I France.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271034971
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
In Career Stories, Juliette Rogers considers a body of largely unexamined novels from the Belle Époque that defy the usual categories allowed the female protagonist of the period. While most literary studies of the Belle Époque (1880–1914) focus on the conventional housewife or harlot distinction for female protagonists, the heroines investigated in Career Stories are professional lawyers, doctors, teachers, writers, archeologists, and scientists. In addition to the one well-known woman writer from the Belle Époque, Colette, this study will expand our knowledge of relatively unknown authors, including Gabrielle Reval, Marcelle Tinayre, and Colette Yver, who actively participated in contemporary debates on women's possible roles in the public domain and in professional careers during this period. Career Stories seeks to understand early twentieth century France by examining novels written about professional women, bourgeois and working-class heroines, and the particular dilemmas that they faced. This book contributes a new facet to literary histories of the Belle Époque: a subgenre of the bildungsroman that flourished briefly during the first decade of the twentieth century in France. Rogers terms this subgenre the female berufsroman, or novel of women's professional development. Career Stories will change the way we think about the Belle Époque and the interwar period in French literary history, because these women writers and their novels changed the direction that fiction writing would take in post-World War I France.
In Thrall to Political Change
Author: Malcolm Anderson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191619566
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 512
Book Description
This is the first history of the French police and gendarmerie, for the period since the establishment of a democratic Republican regime in 1870 down to the present day. Based on archival material and on the vast amount of recent research by French scholars on the subject, it covers dramatic and often harrowing developments - anarchist and communist subversion, violent demonstrations and strikes, fascist threats, war and occupation, colonial conflicts and regime change - which have made policing in France troubled and controversial. As well as a chronological history, the book contains a thematic treatment of the police and the Republican regime (including the complex police-justice and police-military relations, the politics of police officials analysing the charge of racism, politico-police scandals, and inequalities of policing), of major controversies (over political policing, municipal or central control of the police, and modernisation), and of areas which pose problems for which there is no clear solution (use of force and police violence, police accountability, private security, and internationalization). In conclusion, the relations between the police and the public, and the place of the police in the political order are assessed. It is inter-disciplinary in approach using the academic literature in sociology, history, political science, criminal justice as well as the writings of police practitioners. The subject is placed in the context of international debates on policing, and the language used is free of jargon and the use, without explanation, of French terms. The bibliography and sources are a basic guide for further study of the subject.
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191619566
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 512
Book Description
This is the first history of the French police and gendarmerie, for the period since the establishment of a democratic Republican regime in 1870 down to the present day. Based on archival material and on the vast amount of recent research by French scholars on the subject, it covers dramatic and often harrowing developments - anarchist and communist subversion, violent demonstrations and strikes, fascist threats, war and occupation, colonial conflicts and regime change - which have made policing in France troubled and controversial. As well as a chronological history, the book contains a thematic treatment of the police and the Republican regime (including the complex police-justice and police-military relations, the politics of police officials analysing the charge of racism, politico-police scandals, and inequalities of policing), of major controversies (over political policing, municipal or central control of the police, and modernisation), and of areas which pose problems for which there is no clear solution (use of force and police violence, police accountability, private security, and internationalization). In conclusion, the relations between the police and the public, and the place of the police in the political order are assessed. It is inter-disciplinary in approach using the academic literature in sociology, history, political science, criminal justice as well as the writings of police practitioners. The subject is placed in the context of international debates on policing, and the language used is free of jargon and the use, without explanation, of French terms. The bibliography and sources are a basic guide for further study of the subject.
Uncovering Paris
Author: Lela F. Kerley
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807166340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Part I. Public balls -- Staging the nue woman : the 1893 Bal des Quat'z-Arts -- Policing public nudity : "the revolution of Sarah Brown"--Part II. Music halls -- Performing nude : erotic dancers and the female body as spectacle -- Mobilizing against immorality : René Bérenger and France's moral leagues -- Debating Anastasie : theatrical censorship's road to repeal -- Censoring "artistic nudity" : Phryné before her judges -- The nue woman as the new woman -- Epilogue
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807166340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Part I. Public balls -- Staging the nue woman : the 1893 Bal des Quat'z-Arts -- Policing public nudity : "the revolution of Sarah Brown"--Part II. Music halls -- Performing nude : erotic dancers and the female body as spectacle -- Mobilizing against immorality : René Bérenger and France's moral leagues -- Debating Anastasie : theatrical censorship's road to repeal -- Censoring "artistic nudity" : Phryné before her judges -- The nue woman as the new woman -- Epilogue
The Lost History of 1914
Author: Jack Beatty
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408827972
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 427
Book Description
In The Lost History of 1914, Jack Beatty examines the First World War and its causes, testing against fresh evidence the long-dominant assumption that it was inevitable. 'Most books set in 1914 map the path leading to war,' Beatty writes, 'this one maps the multiple paths that led away from it.' Radically challenging the standard account of the war's outbreak, Beatty presents the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand not as the catalyst of a war that would have broken out in any event over some other crisis, but rather as 'its all-but unique precipitant'. Chronicling largely forgotten events faced by each of the belligerent countries in the months before the war started in August, Beatty shows how any one of them - a possible military coup in Germany; the threat to Britain of civil war in Ireland; the murder trial of the wife of the likely next premier of France, who sought détente with Germany - might have derailed the arrival of war. Europe's ruling classes, Beatty shows, were so haunted by fear of those below that they mistook democratisation for revolution, and were tempted to 'escape forward' into war to head it off. Beatty's deeply insightful book - as elegantly written as it is thought-provoking and probing - lights a lost world about to blow itself up in what George Kennan called 'the seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century'. The Lost History of 1914 is a highly original and challenging work of history.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408827972
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 427
Book Description
In The Lost History of 1914, Jack Beatty examines the First World War and its causes, testing against fresh evidence the long-dominant assumption that it was inevitable. 'Most books set in 1914 map the path leading to war,' Beatty writes, 'this one maps the multiple paths that led away from it.' Radically challenging the standard account of the war's outbreak, Beatty presents the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand not as the catalyst of a war that would have broken out in any event over some other crisis, but rather as 'its all-but unique precipitant'. Chronicling largely forgotten events faced by each of the belligerent countries in the months before the war started in August, Beatty shows how any one of them - a possible military coup in Germany; the threat to Britain of civil war in Ireland; the murder trial of the wife of the likely next premier of France, who sought détente with Germany - might have derailed the arrival of war. Europe's ruling classes, Beatty shows, were so haunted by fear of those below that they mistook democratisation for revolution, and were tempted to 'escape forward' into war to head it off. Beatty's deeply insightful book - as elegantly written as it is thought-provoking and probing - lights a lost world about to blow itself up in what George Kennan called 'the seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century'. The Lost History of 1914 is a highly original and challenging work of history.
France in 1938
Author: Benjamin F. Martin
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807130506
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
"Using movies, novels, newspapers, and sensational court cases, Martin weaves a tale of France's collective fear and melancholy during this troubled pre-war period. He counts the "small change" of history - those seemingly unimportant incidents that together compose daily life - by chronicling the four seasons of 1938, both day-to-day events and the major topics of the time. When the relative calm in the first quarter ends with Germany's invasion of Austria, France is faced with hard questions about its diplomatic and military posture, and the leftist political alliance called the Popular Front makes its last stand. In the second quarter, a sense of doom begins to spread, reflected in the year's films noir, such as Marcel Carne's The Port of Shadows. France and Britain capitulate to Hitler at the Munich conference in September, described by Jean-Paul Sartre in his novel The Reprieve. During the autumn, the government aggressively confronts Fascist Italy and labor militancy, thereby retrieving, on the cheap, a sense of dignity. Martin concludes by looking back on the cost of decisions made in 1938 from the perspective of 1940." "Benjamin F. Martin is a professor of history at Louisiana State University."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807130506
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
"Using movies, novels, newspapers, and sensational court cases, Martin weaves a tale of France's collective fear and melancholy during this troubled pre-war period. He counts the "small change" of history - those seemingly unimportant incidents that together compose daily life - by chronicling the four seasons of 1938, both day-to-day events and the major topics of the time. When the relative calm in the first quarter ends with Germany's invasion of Austria, France is faced with hard questions about its diplomatic and military posture, and the leftist political alliance called the Popular Front makes its last stand. In the second quarter, a sense of doom begins to spread, reflected in the year's films noir, such as Marcel Carne's The Port of Shadows. France and Britain capitulate to Hitler at the Munich conference in September, described by Jean-Paul Sartre in his novel The Reprieve. During the autumn, the government aggressively confronts Fascist Italy and labor militancy, thereby retrieving, on the cheap, a sense of dignity. Martin concludes by looking back on the cost of decisions made in 1938 from the perspective of 1940." "Benjamin F. Martin is a professor of history at Louisiana State University."--BOOK JACKET.