Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France - Softcover

Sternhell, Zeev

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691006296 ISBN 13: 9780691006291

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1995

Synopsis

"Few books on European history in recent memory have caused such controversy and commotion," wrote Robert Wohl in 1991 in a major review of Neither Right nor Left. Listed by Le Monde as one of the forty most important books published in France during the 1980s, this explosive work asserts that fascism was an important part of the mainstream of European history, not just a temporary development in Germany and Italy but a significant aspect of French culture as well. Neither right nor left, fascism united antibourgeois, antiliberal nationalism, and revolutionary syndicalist thought, each of which joined in reflecting the political culture inherited from eighteenth-century France. From the first, Sternhell's argument generated strong feelings among people who wished to forget the Vichy years, and his themes drew enormous public attention in 1994, as Paul Touvier was condemned for crimes against humanity and a new biography probed President Mitterand's Vichy connections. The author's new preface speaks to the debates of 1994 and reinforces the necessity of acknowledging the past, as President Chirac has recently done on France's behalf.

About this title

About the Author

Zeev Sternhell is Leon Blum Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, of The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution.

From the Back Cover

"Few books on European history in recent memory have caused such controversy and commotion", wrote Robert Wohl in 1991 in a major review of Neither Right nor Left. Listed by Le Monde as one of the forty most important books published in France during the 1980s, this explosive work asserts that fascism was an important part of the mainstream of European history, not just a temporary development in Germany and Italy but a significant aspect of French culture as well. Neither right nor left, fascism united antibourgeois, antiliberal nationalism and revolutionary syndicalist thought, each of which joined in rejecting the political culture inherited from eighteenth-century France. From the first, Sternhell's argument generated strong feelings among people who wished to forget the Vichy years, and his themes drew enormous public attention in 1994, as Paul Touvier was condemned for crimes against humanity and a new biography probed President Mitterand's Vichy connections. The author's new preface to the paperback edition of Neither Right nor Left speaks to the debates of 1994 and reinforces the necessity of acknowledging the past, as President Chirac has recently done on France's behalf.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691006296
• ISBN 13: 9780691006291
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 440