Robert J. Young

Marketing Michelin: Advertising and Cultural Identity in Twentieth-Century France: Harp, Stephen L.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 356 pp., Publication Date: December 2001

annihilated German Jewish identity as such, leading some thereafter to emphasize exclusively their Jewish heritage, a smaller number l o stress their Germanness and in a few instances to return to the Heimat (homeland) after 1945, and a still smaller minority to repudiate their German and Jewish roots altogether. As Heinz Kellermann explained immediately after the war about the land of his birth, “ I f became utterly clear to me . . . why this will he eternally a foreign country to us, why there can never be an identity between our memories and the present reality” (86). For “generation exodus,” the Holocaust was the defining moment. Chance favored sonre with distinguished careers in new countries, leaving others equally talented to await doom in Nazi hands. By focusing on the remnant that not only survived but quite often prevailed, Laqueur paradoxically forces us to retlect on the fate of the six million slaughtered in Hitler’s “final solution.”

Peter Jackson, Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the Politics of National Security in the Era of the First World War

‘Keep wel thy tonge, and keep thy freend’. Chaucer seems to have anticipated the challenge of reviewing the work of a friend, in this case, that of Peter Jackson. Were it to be all praise, mutual f...

The Modernist Enterprise: The French Elites and the Threat of Modernity, 1900–1940: Beale, Marjorie A.: Stanford: Stanford University Press, 231 pp., Publication Date: February 2000

Poland certainly is emerging as one of the most interesting and significant of the postSoviet states. Perhaps as a consequence, this brief volume offers a succinct impression of a millennium of Polish history but concentrates on the twentieth century, especially the postCommunist period. The first chapter gives a good geographical introduction to Polish history. Chapters 2 and 3 look at Polish history prior to World War I. Somewhat surprisingly, there is no mention of the legendary Miezko and the founding of Poland and the Piast dynasty. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with Poland from World War I up to 1921. Chapter 6 covers the interwar years, and chapter 7 discusses World War 11. Communism up to 1970 is the subject of chapter 8, and chapter 9 deals with communism’s fall up to 1990. The concluding chapter is devoted to contemporary Poland, “The Third Republic.” There are notes at the end of each chapter and a bibliographical essay: Both are primarily composed of secondary English-language sources. There are helpful biographical sketches of notable people in the history of Poland and a glossary at the end as well. The History of Poland is very well written. It is clear, concise, and without major bias. It is a fairly basic book and is indeed intended for the general reader. Anyone with even a fundamental knowledge of Polish and Eastern European history will probably find it too minimal.

France and the Origins of the Second World War

Introduction - France Ambivalent, 1919-1940 - Historical Ambivalence, 1940-1990s - Accord and Disaccord - Political Division and Ideological Debate - Economics and More Counter-Prophecies - On Ideas, Attitudes, Opinions - Notes - Bibliography