Entree to France
SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN
Entree to France As France Goes. By David Schoenbrun. Harper. 341 pp. $5.00. Reviewed by J. Salwyn Schapiro Professor emeritus of history, CCNY; author, "Liberalism and the Challenge of...
...The book, in the main, deals with the political, economic and colonial problems confronting postwar France...
...What the author says has been said before, but not so brightly and so pungently...
...Faure was "more concerned about the way to do things than the need to get them done...
...The latest is David Schoenbrun, who for a number of years has functioned as CBS correspondent in Paris and, according to the jacket blurb, was "an on-the-spot observer of French news-in-the-making...
...It was he who devised for France the Monnet Plan, which used Marshall Plan money to reorganize the basic industries...
...Not special students of France, to whom the book will reveal little...
...The modernizing of French industry has been largely the work of Jean Monnet, an economic statesman in the great tradition of Colbert...
...At present, the Mollet Cabinet continues in office supported by three mutually hostile parties, the Catholic MRP, the Radical Socialists, and the Socialists, who have been consolidated into a Center bloc by the pressures of a disloyal opposition, the Communists on the left and the semi-fascists on the right...
...This sector includes such enterprises as railways, automobiles, steel and chemicals...
...He knows personally the leading public men, with whom he has been in frequent contact...
...Queuille "excelled at doing nothing...
...His judgment of French politicians is keen and sharp: Mendes-France is "a hard, bitter and angry man...
...The French economy is subjected to severe criticism by the author...
...The result is a book pleasant and easy to read...
...The value of the book derives from the author's intimate knowledge of the present situation in France...
...In his view, only an economic union of Western Europe would create a large and solid basis for continuous prosperity...
...In describing French politics, Schoenbrun inevitably deals with the multi-party system and ministerial instability...
...The Fourth Republic, writes Schoenbrun, "can boast of having taken many historic decisions under trying circumstances," e.g., NATO, the Coal and Steel Community, and the return of the Saar to Germany...
...As Schoenbrun was an intelligent eyewitness of historic events, his book may well become an "original source" to future historians...
...Free enterprise in France, he asserts, is neither free nor enterprising...
...Schoenbrun is careful to note the emergence of a modern sector in the French economy, technologically as modern as some of the great industries in America...
...He possesses the rare gift of mingling the discussion of serious matters with well-told anecdotes illustrating French characteristics and attitudes...
...If ever a United States of Western Europe becomes a reality, its George Washington will be Jean Monnet...
...Without minimizing these evils, he notes that they do not resuit in paralysis that inhibits decisive action, as so often charged...
...Mister Europe," as Schoenbrun calls Monnet, has been tireless in his efforts to create such a union...
...Poujade "combines the worst features of Elvis Presley and Huey Long...
...He "participated" in the war in Indo-China...
...Schoenbrun's book deals only with what is on the surface, but what is on the surface is not necessarily superficial or deceptive...
...If Schoenbruirs book can be said to have a hero, he is Monnet, "a poet who composes his odes in blueprints and columns of figures...
...He regards the recovery of France, as well as that of Germany and Britain, as merely temporary...
...In his view, the loss of the colonies will eventually benefit France, as the effort and capital now expended in the colonies will be used to develop more efficiently the rich natural resources of the homeland...
...Underpaid, overcharged, heavily taxed and ill-housed," the infuriated worker votes Communist...
...author, "Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism" Since the war, France has been acquiring a number of candid friends who have written books dealing with her problems...
...It was he who devised the plan for the Coal and Steel Community, of which for a time he was head...
...In the section of the book dealing with the French colonies, Schoenbrun reveals himself as a bitter opponent of imperialism...
...However, all is not stagnant in France...
...It was he again who was the chief architect of Euratom and of the European Economic Community, now about to be adopted...
...The rebellion in Algeria he characterizes as "the last death agony of the French Empire...
...And the author's bright, personal, epigrammatic style will hold the reader...
...Who can best profit from reading As France Goes...
...Low production in agriculture and industry, inefficient distribution, inequitable taxation, high prices and low wages have created an economy in which "everything is geared to the survival of the least fit...
...People did not dance in the streets of European capitals when Louis XVI was executed...
...Monnet is a man of great vision as well as a practical man of affairs...
...A leading politician or diplomat "told me" of his plans...
...Lamartine was the Foreign Minister of the Second Republic, not the promoter of its "national workshops...
...In a crucial situation, a "concentration" of like-minded political groups results in the formation in Parliament of a solid bloc that puts through important measures, decisively and effectively...
...Especially do they want to understand France, America's oldest friend, without whom no Europe, united or divided, is possible...
...Bismarck was not a "protege" of Louis Napoleon...
...The Parlements were not "assemblies or councils" but judicial bodies...
...What followed was the "miracle of French recovery," evidenced by a great increase in agricultural and industrial production, a rise in real wages, and a high birth-rate, now even higher than in West Germany...
...He "was present" at an important conference...
...The Assembly, not Louis Napoleon, "disfranchised some three million workers...
...It will appeal to the new reading and traveling public, consisting of those who since the war have become seriously interested in the fate of Western Europe...
...And Jaures was not a Marxist...
...The chief victim is the worker, whose wages are low but who manages to eke out an existence because of the benefits derived from rent control and social services...
...Schoenbrun's observations in As France Goes are indeed very candid, often caustic, but the spirit in which they are made reveals the author as a genuine and devoted friend of France...
...He was "called in" for consultation on a matter of great moment...
...The book has the virtues of its defects...
...Unlike Britain, France has done little to provide adequate housing at low cost...
...All that France can expect for the future is "a chance to maintain contacts, not colonies, in Africa...
...Occasionally, Schoenbrun goes on excursions into history, and at times with unfortunate results...
Vol. 40 • May 1957 • No. 20
