Frankreich, Von Gambetta Zu Clemenceau by Werner RichterReview by: John B. WolfThe American Historical Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Jan., 1948), pp. 331-332Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1842839 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 16:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.142.30.55 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:22:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Richter: Frankreich, von Gambetta zu Clemenzceau 331

in unemployment, and so on. This failing is also reflected in the author's neglect to emphasize qualitative considerations in his treatment of the changes in standard of living under the empire.

It is unfortunate that the critical paragraphs of book reviews always seem to outweigh the words of approbation. Any such impression regarding La vie ouvriere would be most unjust. Here is a book which is from cover to cover, by reason of its derivation from untapped sources and the exemplary care and detach- ment of the author, a major contribution to its field. It is a study which reflects M. Duveau's impressive familiarity with the subject and makes one all the more impatient for his promised work on the thought and ideology of French labor during this period.

Harvard University DAVID S. LANDES

FRANKREICH, VON GAMBETTA ZU CLEMENCEAU. By Werner Richter. (Erlenbach-Zurich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag. I946. PP. 496.)

"'DEGENERATE France' is one of the oldest words in Europe's vocabulary" but any nation that "degenerates for three-fourths of a thousand years can have no bad constitution" (p. 74). With this epigram Dr. Richter affirms his faith in the vitality of France. He sees her history as a rhythmical story of disasters and re- coveries. This book, starting with the fiasco of I870-7I and ending with France as one of the victors in the great war of I9I4-I8, seems a striking affirmation of Richter's thesis. Indeed, it would be, if the forces and tendencies in French society (I871-I9I9) that Richter chooses to ignore really were without importance. Richter has become fascinated with the idea that the great men who stalk across the scene of world history are the driving forces in the action, and in this book he presents the "heroic" figures whose labors righted what Richter considers Bismarck's great- est blunder, namely, the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. He has ignored the basic fact that French economy, impoverished by lack of coal and unfitted for modern economic society by its inner organization, failed in these very years to provide a sound foundation upon which the French could safely continue the development of their civilization into the twentieth century.

The literary skill with which this book is put together and the obvious wealth of information at the disposal of the writer almost blind the reader to the fact that the author's interpretation of history is open to question. The narrative is handled masterfully with an abundance of piquant and interesting detail. This material, moreover, is never introduced as obscure allusions, intelligible to none but the specialist-Richter is much too skillful a writer to fall into that unfortunate manner. His presentation of historical characters, even very minor ones, is always done in a direct, forceful, and arresting way. There are few historians who could not learn much from a careful study of his technique. Furthermore, his interest in individuals has made this book valuable as a tableau of many of the more im-

This content downloaded from 193.142.30.55 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:22:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

332 Reviews of Books

portant figures of the first fifty years of the Third Republic. The reviewer knows of no better short account of Gambetta or of Clemenceau in any language, and the pen portraits of Poincare, Thiers, Ferry, Delcasse, and many other political figures are vivid and sometimes brilliant.

The central theme of the story, insofar as a central theme can be discovered, is tied to the axis of Franco-German relations. Students of European diplomacy will be amused and perhaps irritated at some of his observations, but they will have to admit that his attempts to go beyond the diplomatic dispatches for understanding is, at times, fruitful. His discussions of the forces behind diplomacy, in the reviewer's opinion, would have been more significant were he not so curiously blind to the importance of industrialism in the society of Europe after i88o.

The introduction of literary and artistic figures into the political narrative is often interesting, but the reviewer would take issue with his emphasis upon Peguy. Peguy's most important influence did not come until a whole decade after his death; during his lifetime only a small group of intellectuals was aware of his ideas.

Despite the criticisms that can be leveled against this book, it is worth the time it takes to read it.

University of Minnesota JOHN B. WOLF

THE GERMAN PEOPLE: THEIR HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION FROM THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE THIRD REICH. By Veit Valen- tin. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf. I946. PP. XX, 730, xxxi. $6.oo.)

DR. Valentin was trained in history at the universities of Berlin and Munich, also at Heidelberg where he earned his doctorate. From I9IO he taught at Freiburg im Breisgau, and was promoted to professor extraordinary. After the abdication of William II, Dr. Valentin was appointed a professor of history in the School of Economics at Berlin and the following year was also made an Archivrat at the Imperial Archives in Potsdam, where he became a director of research. Most of his sixteen monographs in German deal with German foreign policy from I848 to i9i8. Since Dr. Valentin "denounced German rearmament as a provocation to war and anti-Semitism as an international scourge" it is not surprising that when the Nazis came to power they promptly discharged him as a "politically unreliable civil servant." It did not help him to protest that he was not a Social Democrat, not a Communist, and was of purely "Aryan" descent. He was spied upon, blacklisted, and his books were withdrawn from the market (p. 7I9). He left Germany in July, I933, finding refuge in England. At the University of London he delivered lectures which became the basis of the present book. Rising war clouds drove him to the United States in I939. Here he lectured at various institutions and was a Rockefeller research associate at the Library of Congress. In the summer of I945 he revisited Germany "in an official capacity for the American government." He

This content downloaded from 193.142.30.55 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:22:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions