THE RIGHT in FRANCE from the THIRD REPUBLIC to VICHY This Page Intentionally Left Blank Th E Right in France from the Th Ird Republic To
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE RIGHT IN FRANCE FROM THE THIRD REPUBLIC TO VICHY This page intentionally left blank Th e Right in France from the Th ird Republic to Vichy KEVIN PASSMORE 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Kevin Passmore 2013 Th e moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2013 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–965820–6 Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. For Garthine Acknowledgements If I remember correctly, I began writing this book some seventeen years ago. Already in the late 1990s, the volume of scholarly work on conservatism and the right was enormous, and since then it has increased dramatically. I have tried to keep up with it, and a book like this is especially reliant on the work of others. Indeed, my debt to some historians’ work goes beyond conventional acknowledgement in footnotes: the work of Michel Dobry, Philippe Levillain, Gilles Le Béguec, Nicholas Roussellier, François Monnet, and David Bensoussan, to name just some, has been especially infl uential. Inevitably, I have sometimes disagreed with their interpretations, and to avoid over-complication of the narrative I have not always made that explicit. As for those whose research has received insuffi cient attention, I hope that they will under- stand that one has to stop at some point—the necessity of doing so makes me all the more conscious that this is a history of the right in the Th ird Republic and Vichy— not the history. Over the years, I have also received help from a great number of institutions, scholars, librarians, archivists, and friends. I gratefully acknowledge fi nancial sup- port from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Research Leave Scheme, AH/F003048/1), the British Academy (Small Personal Research Grants, 1995, 2003, 2007), and the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research (Research Awards, 2000, 2007). I have also received generous fi nancial support from the School of History, Archaeology, and Religion at Cardiff University, and special thanks are due to my colleagues in the History department, who covered for me during periods of research leave. I owe a debt to librarians and archivists at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Archives nationales. Th e late Monsieur Gilles de La Rocque kindly allowed me to consult the Fonds La Rocque, and the donors of the Fonds Ribot and Fonds Deschanel gave me permission to consult those papers, all held at the Archives nationales. I would like to thank Christopher Wheeler at Oxford University Press for his patient support for this project from its inception, and Emma Barber for her patient editorial work. I would like to thank Orla Smyth, Chloé Faucillon, and Th omas Daum for the hospitality they provided in Paris. I have learned much from my postgraduate students at Cardiff , in particular Chris Millington, Mark Pitchford, and Joe Starkey, and from presentations to several seminars at the École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris. Ian Dennis drew the maps, and was as patient as ever with my frequent alterations. A number of colleagues and friends have read parts of the manuscript: Magali Della Sudda, Lloyd Bowen, Jackie Clarke, Julian Jackson, Chris Millington, Mary Vincent, Garthine Walker, and Julian Wright. Special thanks are due to Lloyd Bowen, Jackie Clarke, Karen Adler, and Laura Downs. Over innumerable lunches and dinners, in Cardiff Acknowledgements vii and Paris, I have learned an enormous amount from them, and this book bears the imprint of their ideas. Lastly, I am enormously thankful to Joe and Emily Passmore for putting up with the fi nancial drain resulting from frequent trips to France, and above all my wife, Garthine Walker. She has followed this project from its inception, and is an inspiration as a person, colleague, and historian. This page intentionally left blank Contents Abbreviations x Maps xiii 1. Introduction 1 2. Moral Order (1870–1884) 18 3. From Conservatisme to Boulangism (1884–1889) 45 4 . Th e Ralliement (1890–1898) 73 5. Nationalism (1898–1900) 101 6. Party Formation (1898–1906) 127 7. Organization (1906–1914) 151 8 . Th e Union Sacrée (1914–1918) 180 9 . Th e Bloc National (1919–1924) 206 10. Th e Revival of Activism (1924–1926) 234 11. Apogee and Crisis (1928–1932) 262 12. Fascism in France? (1934–1940) 291 13. Conservatives and the Popular Front (1936–1939) 319 14. From Republic to Vichy (1940–1944) 348 Further Reading 369 Index 373 Abbreviations ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE FOOTNOTES AN Archives nationales ANFAM Archives nationales. Fonds Millerand ANFL Archives nationales. Fondes Lamy ANFLM Archives nationales. Fonds Louis Marin ANFLR Archives nationales. Fonds La Rocque ANFM Archives nationales. Fonds Mackau ANFR Archives nationales. Fonds Ribot ANFT Archives nationales. Fonds Tardieu ANFXR Archives nationales. Fonds Rochefoucauld ANPG Archives nationales. Police générale APP Archives de la préfecture de police BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France EHESS École des hautes études en sciences sociales IEP Institut d’études politiques JOCD Journal offi ciel. Chambre des députés JOS Journal offi ciel. Sénat ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXT ACJF Association catholique de la jeunesse française ADCM Association de défense des classes moyennes AF Action française AL Action libérale ALP Action libérale populaire ANEE Association nationale d’expansion économique ANO Alliance nationale de l’Ouest ANOD Association nationale pour l’organisation de la démocratie ANPAPF Alliance nationale pour l’accroissement de la population française ANR Action nationale républicaine ARD Alliance (républicaine) démocratique ARS Action républicaine et sociale CFTC Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens CGPF Confédération générale de la production française (from 1936, Confédération générale du patronat français) CGSCM Confédération générale des syndicats des classes moyennes CGT Confédération générale du travail CGTU Confédération générale du travail unitaire CIPF Confédération de l’intelligence et de la production française CNE Conseil national économique CPEE Centre polytechnicien d’études économiques (formerly X-Crise, 1931) CPRN Centre de propagande des républicains nationaux CRCI Comité républicain du commerce, de l’industrie, et de l’agriculture Abbreviations xi CSAR Comité secret d’action révolutionnaire DC Démocratie chrétienne DRAC Ligue des droits du religieux ancien combattant ERD Entente républicaine démocratique EVP Équipes volantes de propagande FC Fédération des contribuables FCM Filles du Cœur de Marie FDG Fédération des gauches FICF Fédération des industriels et des commerçants français (Fédération Lebon) FN Front national FNC Fédération nationale catholique FNCR Fédération nationale des combattants républicains FR Fédération républicaine FRB Fédération régionaliste bretonne FRF Fédération régionaliste française GQG Grand Quartier Général JAC Jeunesse agricole chrétienne JACF Jeunesse agricole chrétienne féminine JOC Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne JOCF Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne féminine JP Jeunesses patriotes JR Jeunesse royaliste LDN Ligue des droits de la nation LDP Ligue des patriotes LFF Ligue des femmes françaises LPDF Ligue patriotique des françaises LPF Ligue de la patrie française LRN Ligue républicaine nationale NCO Non-Commissioned Offi cer NRF Nouvelle revue française OCM Organisation civile et militaire PAPF Parti agraire et paysan français PCF Parti communiste français PDP Parti démocrate populaire PNB Parti nationaliste breton (1911–14), Parti national breton (1934–44) PPF Parti populaire français PR Proportional representation PRD Parti républicain démocrate PRDS Parti républicain démocrate et social PRNS Parti républicain nationale et social PSF Parti social français PSN Parti socialiste national QR Quatrième république RPF Rassemblement du peuple français SFIO Section française de l’internationale ouvrière (Parti socialiste) SIS Syndicat des ingénieurs salariés SPF Syndicats professionnels français UCAD Union des Comités d’action défensive UF Union fédérale xii Abbreviations UFC Union de la France chrétienne UFSF Union française pour le suff rage des femmes UIE Union des intérêts économiques UN Union nationale UNC Union nationale des combattants UNSA Union nationale des sydicats agricoles UNVF Union nationale pour le vote des femmes UPR Union patriotique républicaine URB Union régionaliste bretonne URD Union