Global Recruitment: the Wartime Origins of French Mandate Syria.
in Ludivine Broch and Alison Carrol eds. France in an era of Global War 1914-1945: Occupation, Politics, Empire and Entanglements (Palgrave Macmillan: 2014).
In 1914, the French author Charles Péguy declared that the world had changed more in the past three decades than it had in two thousand years. Yet the following thirty years would prove more traumatic, more cataclysmic, more earth shattering than any other period in history. France found itself at the centre of many of these political, economic and social shifts which destroyed old institutions and introduced a new world order. What can new scholarship tell us about the French experiences between 1914-1945? What kind of repercussions did international events have on the national psyche? Was this period mostly one of radical change, or does it reflect continuities which extend back into the nineteenth century? In France in an Era of Global War, scholars re-examine French experiences, histories and memories of this period. Using new approaches and methods, they question the long-standing myths and assumptions which continue to surround this period and suggest new frameworks for thinking about French history during these years. Whilst historians of this period have come a long way in the past hundred years, this edited volume is a strong reminder that many stones remain unturned.