Exalted and Exceptional
A History of Modern France. Vol. 2. 1799-1945. By Alfred Cobban. (Penguin Books 5s.) France, Steadfast and Changing: The Fourth to the Fifth Republic. By Raymond Aron. (Harvard and O.U.P., 27s. 6d.) `IF the Soviet Union did not exist, France would have the dubious distinction of being the most commented-upon country in the world,' Profes- sor Aron remarks. and, as one reads the second volume of Professor Cobban's lively and lucid Penguin History of Modern France, one can see hy. History does not everywhere move at a uniform speed, and in France since the Revolu- tion one has the impression that more things have happened faster than anywhere else. This may be in part illusory; the economic develop- ment of Germany in the late nineteenth century was swifter than anything comparable elsewhere; Lenin's and Hitler's revolutions were swifter and more far-reaching than anything since Napo- leon's day; and the rush into existence of the new nations of Asia and Africa still leaves us (and them) breathless. What is true, nevertheless, is that the French have, in the last 150 years, more consciously `made history' than any other people. General de Gaulle is not the only Frenchman to think of France as 'dedicated to an exalted and exceptional destiny,' or to give his public actions a deliberate reference to the historical past. Pro- fessor Cobban's book is full of examples of this way of thinking: the revolutionaries of 1848, as Marx pointed out, parodied their predecessors of 1789-95; the Communists claim descent from the Jacobin revolution of 1793 just as the Radicals have continued to declare themselves the heirs of 1789. And, as Professor Cobban shows, situations frequently repeat themselves: in 1871, the masochistic tendencies of the French right reasserted themselves as they had in 1815 and were to do again in 1940. The nation was called to repentance for the sins that had brought on the disasters of the war.
A story so full of character and incident, of ''profound economic and social conflicts and con- .sistently high intellectual and artistic achieve- ments, bears retelling again and again. Professor Cobban has tried, with some success, to carry out the difficult task of weaving an account of social, economic and artistic developments into a mainly political narrative. By the time he reaches the twentieth century, as he frankly admits, the pace has got too hot, and his treatment `has been confined mainly to an outline of political de- velopments.' As he has some perceptive things to say about thought, art and literature in the nine- teenth century, it is a pity that he did not have room to comment on these aspects of the twentieth, and to relate the role of Paris as a continuing centre of avant-garde activity to his other themes.
Professor Cobban takes the political story down to 1945; and it is at this point that Profes- sor Aron's Harvard lectures, now reprinted under a title which gives an unfortunate and erroneous impression of government tourist office propa- ganda, really start. M. Aron is one of the cleverest men in Europe, and it would be surprising if he did not have a number of striking and contro- versial things to say about contemporary France. Occasionally, however, his generalisations seem intended more to provoke comment than to command assent in the light of the historical evidence. He is, for example, much concerned to refute Mr. Herbert Ltithy's thesis that France has had 'generations of technical and organisa- tional stagnation,' but although he produces some interesting and convincing figures, he still does not succeed in explaining away the decline in the decade 1929-1939 which was crucial for France, economically as well as politically. Again, while he has an interesting general discussion about the circumstances which favour a plurality of parties rather than a two-party system, not everyone will accept his suggestion that this is the result of the fact that France is, or has been, a Catholic country, and that it is the importance of the religious question which 'prevents on the right the organisation of a large moderate party which would include Voltairists and Catholics,' or that a similar explanation can be given of political conditions in Republican Spain or in present-day Italy. Professor Aron, however, is at his most brilliant when he writes about de Gaulle himself or about the problems raised by France's with- drawal from empire. His Harvard lectures were delivered in 1957; the book was finished early in 1959, and, as French history still moves as fast as ever, his predictions and analyses have been veri- fied or falsified as he was writing. What is re- markable is how often he was right. Perhaps, indeed, France is one of the few countries where the study of the past- helps one to predict the future. In discussing contemporary Germany, it is sometimes dangerous to know too much his- tory. In discussing France, one cannot know enough; and Professor Cobban's two volumes provide an admirable foundation for the under- standing of Professor Aron's sociological and political comments.
JAMES JOLL
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