France as Usual
Epstein, Leon D.
France as Usual France: Steadfast and Changing, by Raymond Aron. Harvard University Press. 201 pp. $4.75. Reviewed by Leon D. Epstein Writing books about contemporary France is a hazardous...
...Nor does he look forward with contentment to the day when the West "will be only a small island of wealthy liberal societies" surrounded by poorer and hostile nations, Soviet and non-Soviet...
...Reviewed by Leon D. Epstein Writing books about contemporary France is a hazardous occupation...
...Aron's hopes on this score appear to rest on the recent and rapid industrial modernization of the country and on the assumption that the Algerian question will eventually be settled...
...The choice is not yet, at any rate, between de Gaulle and democracy...
...Aron's work, then, is up-to-date on most important matters, at least as of the time this review is written...
...Finally he added a postscript in early 1960...
...Now it is de Gaulle rather than a series of democratic politicians who can neither suppress nor come to terms with the Algerian rebellion...
...No personality nor institution is available to take de Gaulle's place as an effective symbol of loyalty and authority...
...Raymond Aron's experience illustrates the problem...
...On the Algerian issue, Aron is plainly concerned to evoke in Americans an intelligent sympathy for France's situation...
...it is between de Gaulle and civil war...
...However, the trouble, as Aron properly says, is that a non-hereditary monarchy like de Gaulle's is necessarily a temporary expedient...
...Algeria is an obvious example...
...TOM BURKE wrote the play, "Home Is Clear Crossing," which was produced off-Broadway...
...A distinguished French journalist and sociologist, Aron originally gave the lectures meant for this book at Harvard in late 1957...
...Aron is by no means convinced that the elimination of European control, and of Europeans, would always increase the liberty and security of individuals...
...The change from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic in 1958 caused him to write a somewhat different book, finished in early 1959...
...Its future remains unsolved under the Fifth as under the Fourth Republic...
...lems...
...SYDNEY D. BAILEY, currently engaged in research for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote the just published book, "The General Assembly...
...A representative form of government remains for Aron the normal expression of French society in the Twentieth Century, and plainly he expects France to return, although in an improved version, to this form...
...ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR., professor of history at Harvard, was active in the Kennedy campaign and is a former co-chairman of Americans for Democratic Action...
...he is currently a magazine columnist and editor...
...LEON EPSTEIN, chairman of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin, has specialized in French and British politics...
...Aron is a most sophisticated, knowledgeable, and reasonable expositor of his nation's difficulties in adjusting to the modern world...
...This appears fortunate for France...
...The difficulties are often durable...
...Moreover, it is doubtful that events could move so rapidly as to destroy the value of the book...
...Change comes faster than publication...
...Because he is de Gaulle, he remains in power anyway...
...No more than in May, 1958, is there a visible alternative...
...He deals sharply with the facile application of anti-colonial doctrines to France's probTHE REVIEWERS JACK BARBASH is professor of labor education at the University of Wisconsin...
Vol. 25 • February 1961 • No. 2
