CLIOPATRIA: A Group Blog
Entries by Nathanael D. Robinson
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Sarkozy is Pompey the Great
I'm calling it. The Mediterranean. The Caucuses. He's just not very good at empire building, although Saakashvili appeared on CNN sitting next to the EU flag.
In all seriousness, Sarkozy's six-month term as EU president has already twice brought about confrontation with the union's expansion. The failed gambit at a Mediterranean Union was knocked down by German media and public who saw it as an attempt at reconstituting the French colonial empire. Now any questions of Georgia's belonging to the community of Europe are mute--a nation farther east than Turkey, with less of a Hellenic imprint, which could not be aided militarily by either union or any member nation without going through the Black Sea (controlled by Turkey and Russia). If the Russian invasion accelerates Georgian membership to the EU, Turkish membership would have to follow quickly, effectively killing the dream of an overlapping Mediterranean community.
Side note: there were some interesting editorials in German papers about Braudel's The Mediterranean in the wake of Sarkozy's project. Wolf Lepenies and others wrote an editorial that describes how the book, conceived in Nazi captivity, imagines for the French the region as a counterweight to northern Europe, protecting and nurturing peace and liberty. Unfortunately, Braudel ignored France's domination of North Africa.
(Crossposted at Europe Endless.)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Where have I heard Obama's speech?
I guess there are only so many ways to riff on the "wall" theme.
[Crossposted at Europe Endless]
Friday, July 11, 2008
Retreads
Sometimes deciphering foreign intelligence is like viewing abstract art. "It's an expression of anger." "It's a woman scorned." "It's a case for war."
Arthur Herman ("Why Iraq Was Inevitable", Commentary, July/August 2008) brings us back to Fall 2002/Winter 2003 to show us, with the "long view" of history, that the threat Saddam Hussein posed had been ever present in the minds of the American public and leadership.
I would agree, in part, with Mr. Herman: historians will contend with the image of Iraq in popular consciousness, particularly as an expression of the fear posed by Islam and the Arab world. The case for war was a soft sell. However, Mr. Herman is not interested in the public consciousness. He is interested in the opinions of politicians in order to show that the threat Hussein posed was not something invented by Bush and Neo-Conservatives, but which had its roots in the Clinton administration and that Democrats and Republicans believed in with firm conviction. But that's shooting fish in a barrel.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Iraq Itineraries
Sometime this month Barack Obama will probably become a pilgrim in Iraq. He won’t, of course, travel as a believer en route to enlightenment (although some might wish to paint it so), but as a candidate repeating the journey of his competitor, John McCain. Personally, I want to know what either man learned, or intends to learn, by traveling to the occupied lands. Steven Simon (“The Price of the Surge”, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2008) made a convincing case that appearances are deceiving; that the Surge has allied itself with the insurgents against al Qaeda; and that the insurgents will emerge better prepared to carry on their civil war. Besides, what opportunity will they have to generate facts and interpretations for themselves?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Memory in Political Dialogue
For the current symposium on Cliopatria, Manan Ahmed and I carried out a brief conversation about the role of memory in relations between communities and nations. We were responding to Valérie Rosoux's article, Foregiveness: Grandeur or Political Slogan, an article that focuses on the discontinuities of memory and ethics in the process of political reconciliation.
Our conversation starts below the fold.
Monday, April 7, 2008
A Call for Symposium
It’s been far too long, but here it is: Cliopatria’s tenth symposium, Reconcile and Remember: The Past in History and Politics. We will discuss Valérie Rosoux’s Forgiveness: Grandeur or Political Slogan (Dr. Rosoux has graciously allowed us to reprint and translate her article at HNN). Her work challenges us to think about how the peacemaking process bring about new interpretations of historical memory.
In addition, I offer several supplementary readings. These works deal with France’s relations with Germany and its North African minorities. Dr. Rosoux has graciously allowed us to take an excerpt from one of her articles.
- Valérie Rosoux, Human rights and the ‘work of memory’ in international relations (excerpt)
- Verena Radkau, "Shared History? The Franco-German High School History Book"
- Naima Bouteldja and Stuart Hodkinson, "The Contest for Memory"
- Christopher Caldwell, "Sarkozy is past saying 'sorry'"
- Joan Wolf, '"Holocaust" in France', Harnessing the Holocaust: The Politics of Memory in France, p. 71-76, available at Google Books
These readings are mere stimulants, and participants should allow their minds to wander.
Cliopatricians should send their contributions to me at *ndr* *at* *brandeis* *dot* *edu*. I will post them on April 16, 2008.
Bloggers are welcomed to participate. They should post their own contributions at their individual blogs and e-mail the links to me. Distinguished historians are also encouraged to participate, and I will endeavor to include your contributions as well.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Why we don't fight
Christian Kreutzer ("Germans to the Front", Atlantic Times, March 2008) produced a piece on the German effort in Afghanistan, describing the army's hesitation to take an active role the war. Alas, the Bundeswehr, more involved than the German public realizes, is still quite tepid about engaging in combat missions. But is this is question of post-war mentality?
[Crossposted to Europe Endless]
Friday, February 1, 2008
Third Generation Memory
I'm starting to wonder whether the confrontation with the past by German '60s Generation will prove to be less about coming to the truth of German crimes and guilt, but will represent one of many successive stages in which Nazism and the Holocaust will be instrumentalized by the political culture. Many scholars have called into doubt something that has become historical dogma: that politicians of early West Germany whitewashed the past. An active discussion about the past took place in that first formative decade, but on different terms than those of the Historikerstreit. A public that largely lost its connection to the German heritage (including Nazism), both materially and spiritually, searched for a way out of the rubble. Arguably, generalizing German guilt allowed Germans to continue and left deeper questions to the future.
Nicholas Kulish ("Germany confronts Holocaust Legacy Anew", NY Times, 1/29/2008) suggests that this culture that seems obsessed with monuments to its crimes is actually rediscovering the Holocaust. Third generation memory (if we can call it that) takes the younger generation's concern for social justice and imperialism (especially as it relates to wars in the Middle East) as the starting point for their approach to the past.
Some say that young Germans, who are required to study the Nazi era and the Holocaust intensively, have shown little indication of letting the theme drop, despite their distance from the events. They say that the younger generation has tackled it as a source not of guilt, but of responsibility on the world stage for social justice and pacifism, including opposition to the war in Iraq.
Of course, the new phase reveals a society that has largely overcome the hindrances of defeat and able to act on the world stage. Its sovereignty is, nevertheless, continually tied the evolution of European institutions, where the future of the continents responsibility to global order is heatedly discussed. It also reveals a society awakening to a reality of its own multiculturalism, measuring what steps it can take in integrating those who seem foreign. [Crossposted at Europe Endless.]
Thursday, December 6, 2007
The Emperor's New Throne
Pierre Mertens writes in Le Monde (December 12, 2007):
Belgium no longer loves itself. It never truly did love itself. A certain masochism always eats away at its insides. This tendency for self-derision that, at times, reflects its humor and its arrogance, also nourishes its suicidal tendencies. . . . Its métissage, its own bastardization, made it a metaphor, a metonym, for all Europe: one part for all. A laboratory all can visit to pierce the secret of the paradoxical, improbable model that we offer.
For all the ink spilled over the constitutional crisis in Belgium (over the election of an anti-federal, pro-Flanders majority), there is little concern, certainly not on par with the election of Hamas. Perhaps some people think it is natural for ethnic groups to go their own ways. Nations are artful creatures, and the confederation that may emerge if the CD&V coalition eventually receives the leadership of government will be as natural as Belgium had been--or the two separate nations that may yet come. Even from the perspective of European institutions, the disintegration of a nation is less important than the ties that are cultivated between regions and communities across national borders--transnational rather than international.
The fate of Brussels may prove more interesting. Federal city, capital city, capital Europe, it is much more than a center of government, but the symbol of an ideal of post-national politics. Without Belgium, what would become of the city and its ideal? Pascal Delwit finds the prospects bleak:
If Belgium implodes, it would be logical, from the logic of a European nation-state, that Belgium would be bequeathed to Walloons and Brussels. It is difficult to speculate [further]. The key problem for Brussels would be to maintain its status as a national and international capital. To be clear, if Brussels is no longer a capital of Europe, it will become a small provincial town. It will lose its European institutions and all the enterprises associated therewith.
A contraction of function as a national would certainly make it less appealing for European politicians. It's been suggested that the current crisis would make Belgium's signature on the new EU treaty meaningless. What would happen to the EU? Brussels is not the only capital. My beloved Strasbourg stands ready already housing many parliamentary functions as well as the court and Council of Europe. And there are a few who would prefer relocating all functions to Strasbourg (mostly those who hate how the city of Brussels is run). For that matter, Bonn might have lots of usable space.
The breakup of Belgium would give fuel to the fire of Euroskeptcism. The symbolic capital of an ethnically-diverse federation would be lost. Other capital cities would inspire national jealousies. Diplomacy between national executives would be emphasized over democracy, and the EU needs much more of the latter. The nations of Eastern Europe would feel less attracted to the "spiritual" dimensions of European integration. As much as Brussels could be hated for burdensome bureaucracy and complex language, the city has a niche that others might not fill.
[Crossposted to Europe Endless]
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Problem with Stopped Clocks
Surprise, surprise: 25% of Germans think that there were "good sides" to the Third Reich (37% among the generation that grew up under the Third Reich, 15% for the next generation, and 20% among the young generation). It neatly parallels the rise of pro-fascists parties in recent elections
It would be easy to make too much of this. "The Nazis did such and such" is a weak, but oft used, rhetorical device. American conservatives often discredit social policies in Europe by noting similar programs established by the Nazis. These programs had roots in previous eras--the conservative-nationalists of the Kaiserreich and the socialists of the Weimar Republic. (I think I have been overheard comparing the current consumer economy to the Nazi war economy. Shame on me!) Surely, the formula can be reversed in order to lend credibility to the Third Reich.
The larger problem is how a positive interpretation of Nazism makes Germans comfortable with political extremism. Eva Herman, whose comments about Germans driving on Nazi-built roads caused a furor, soft-pedals the foundations of Nazism. The institutions of contemporary Germany may have some roots in the Nazi era--thus being Nazi accomplishments--but they are not remarkably Nazi. As Voelker Beck said, the Autobahn had been in the planning for decades before it had been built in the 1930s.
Even to argue for the efficiency of the regime would be a fallacy: was not fascism one force among many that prevented the flowering of democratic culture in Weimar Germany? Did those forces not seek to inhibit the function of the Weimar government? Nazism was partially responsible for the failures of the republic, an author of its faults. The NSDAP solved the turmoil it caused.
The Third Reich did not make order with efficiency. Through violence, it gained the monopoly on violence, thus could turn it on and off at will.
[Cross-posted at Europe Endless]
[Edited 10/20]
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Post-National Man
[Crossposted at Europe Endless]
My first taste of German pride came when I visited a friend in deep in Baden-Württemberg: his father glowed as he described the perfection of the machine we drove in, a Mercedes Benz (a recent model whose details now escape memory). Every other spirited display I experienced mapped out into a different context: the local beer, the regional architecture, the neighborhood argot. Finally, a real German who felt his Germanness. But I also dismissed it: this man had, at great cost, brought his family from the DDR to the BDR in the late 1970s.
A report by the Identity Foundation of Düsseldorf describes a declining sense of Germanness. Nationality doesn't fit into the daily self-perception of Germans. Home(town), neighborhood, and family all take precedent. Of the seven personality types they identify, Germanness seems qualified in one way or other: Kulturdeutsche (cultural accomplishments), Heimatdeutsche (product of the territory), Leistungsdeutsche (innovation and industriousness of the nation), Ordnungsdeutsche (orderly society), Isolationsdeutsche(withdrawal from imperialism), Jammerdeutsche (lamenting past crimes), Globaldeutsche (global citizenship). Strong feelings of Germanness tend to be limited to "neutral territory," notably the arena of technological achievements and ingenuity.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Soukous de Mort
What would it be like to groove at the apocalypse? I always imagined it would be like this:
Three and a half minutes is hardly enough to appreciate Franco's "Attention na SIDA" (lyrics in translation"). The sixteen minute epic alternates versus in French and Lingala, the former being a PSA about AIDS and a call to action to citizens, politicians and professionals to solve the epidemic. So different from the American popular songs that elicited understanding on the part of sufferers, Franco gave urgency to the cause.
It's been twenty years since "Attention na SIDA" was released, eighteen since Franco himself "was rumored to have died of AIDS." The big man of Soukous defined the sound of Mobutu's Zaire. His appetites ran large, and he was known for his womanizing. However, the Lingala lyrics (see Barrett Watten's analysis)take a critical stance to the naive nationalism and chauvinism of the past, filled with regret for betraying family and country for contracting and spreading the disease. Franco's penance belonged to those who could understand this national language of Zaire.
The Lingala lyrics were, unfortunately, beyond the understanding of friends who were involved in spreading information about AIDS in the late '80s and early '90s. It was the call to action, written in French, that touched them. Evoking citizenship to contain the spread of disease, Franco's lyrics appeared to offer a different vision of sexual identity in a democratic society. After all, "AIDS ravages all levels of society," and no one was safe or innocent.
In the intellectual sense, the song gave cause to believe that the histories of sexuality being written were not sufficient. Rumors of the "death of man" were greatly exaggerated; the reality o death by AIDS was frightening. AIDS reminded society of its physicality and corporeality. Decades of mastering sexuality were in question.
This all looks like a hiccup, a momentary reaction that has been replaced by cautious confidence as HIV drugs have become more successful. AIDS/HIV sits further back in the consciousness of students. I'm not sure anymore that the disease will affect how the history of sexuality will be written.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
What Spanish for Chutzpah?
[Crossposted to Europe Endless.]
I tend to lose track of time. It's a bad quality for an historian, but confronting the same boring file for hours speeds the passage of time even though one perceives it grinding to a halt. I had been picking away at the same document today (in between bouts of looking after my son) before I gave up, turned on the TV, and surrendered to the pablum of cable news.
Only I didn't realize what time it was. Suddenly, the dreaded words, "Lou Dobbs Tonight," appeared in the bottom corner of the screen. Yes, it was that hour when CNN imitates Radio Rwanda, only tonight the Grand Wizard surrendered his stool for his underling (according to the rumor mill, Dobbs wants to import remnants of the Berlin Wall to southern Texas).
As with any other night, another story about Mexico or Mexican immigrants was being broadcasted. This one carried the title, "Mexico's Chutzpah." Unfortunately, it carried the subtitle, "What's Spanish for Chutzpah?" Some clever tech or intern must have thought that one up on the fly. Did they really mean to destroy the credibility of the news shows raison d'être? Did they know it is a loan word from Yiddish, assimilated by English?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Scar Tissue
Can we call it a trend now: German cities removing post-war construction to restore pre-war architecture? First, there was the recreation of Dresden’s Frauenkirche. Next, the demolition of the East German Palace of the Republic with the hope of restoring the Hohenzollern palace. Then, the Berlin SPD proposed returning to rows of single family townhouses to replace the large, blocky, Bauhaus-inspired apartment buildings. Even Cologners’ racist resistance to the construction of a “super-mosque” belonged to a larger debate about the lost character of the city.
The newest proposal comes from Frankfurt, which is considering demolishing its city hall and surrounding buildings in order to recreate the Altstadt, the old city center, at the cost of 70 million euros. The city wants to replace the modern buildings with housing similar to the burger housing that previously existed. Author Martin Mosebach argues that not only will the restoration renew public spaces in an area made alien by modern architecture, it will frame the patrimony in the area, the cathedral and the Römer (the historic city hall).
Friday, August 10, 2007
Religious Contradance: Everybody swing to the right?
During a rather blasé search for new material concerning German history on the blogosphere, I came upon an unusual new blog: one written by Ludwig Windthorst, one of the founders of the Zentrum and a towering figure in Catholic democracy, called Der Vasall!
I doubt that it is the historical Windthorst, or even a coincidental appellation, but the blog takes on an interesting subject: the theological basis for monarchy in Catholicism. Well, it's more of a Catholic perspective on politics, an interesting "thought experiment", but apparently German bloggers seem to pine for monarchy with some frequency (if the links are any indication).
Anyway, blogger Windthorst raises an interesting question: is monarchy a "right" form of state? is it necessarily conservative? On the surface, his claim that it could be both holds water. The alliance of European kings and queens with more conservative parties, especially nationalist parties, is inseparable from historical development. Who would join the radicals who called into question the legitimacy of monarchy? Even talk of "nation" from the right could be uncomfortable for the monarch trying to fit into the modern world.
This leads to another question: how did religion, particularly Catholicism, affect the political orientation of monarchy? Was there a swing to the right?
Friday, June 29, 2007
A Piece of the Sky
The protests of Neo-Nazis at the planned construction of a mosque in Cologne would normally be taken as a sign of resurging German racism. Cologners have registered their disapproval of the construction in large numbers (most preferring a smaller, more modest structure). The extremists are using the uproar to gain legitimacy. Of course, others would still see the controversy through the lens of the “clash of civilizations,” a Muslim minority refusing to integrate and challenging the values of the western majority, building a mosque that would challenge the city's cathedral.
Cologne is one of two European cities I love most of all. It is, perhaps, one of the few laid-back cities in Germany, as close as Germans could ever come to Los Angeles. Most of its history has been noted for lower levels of racism than other German cities. When the Jews were expelled in the fifteenth century, it was done matter-of-fact, without the typical violence or vitriol. Still, racism is present, and I not only witnessed the racist attitudes toward Turks, I personally received some of that ill-will on a few occasions. Cologners are uncomfortable with Turks. Whenever I raise questions about why Turks could not become good Germans (or why they weren’t turning into them), I am met with hostility. Clearly, Turks need institutions that cater to them if the rest of the city is uninviting.
Ashamed at the way the Cologners have behaved, I feel that the story is being unfairly reduced to a problem of either German racism or east vs. west. Indeed, the skyline is as much of an issue as religious and minority rights, one that has been around much longer. The skyline dominated by the cathedral has been an iconic image for Cologners and Germans alike. It's not a simple matter to let a minaret, or anything, share the skies with the spires.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Clean Hands
[Crossposted at The Rhine River.]
What's in a name? NPR reported last week on how the Polish government wants to change the name of Auschwitz in order to emphasize that it was a German camp, not a Polish camp. According to the story, the Polish government feels that the extermination camp is mistakenly associated with Poland, because it lies on Polish soil. Much of the story concerns how UNESCO is handling the request, mostly focusing on contentious issue with regard to what kind of heritage site it is--a memorial, a museum?
For the life of me, I can't think of any time when I encountered someone who made this mistake. Sure, it was a German extermination camp, and no one would contend with that. However, NPR missed an opportunity to reveal how the current ruling duo on Poland, the Kaczynski brothers, suspected of fascist leanings, have been running afoul of historical memory, trying to draw sharp lines between victims and perpetrators, and attempting to seal Poland's victimhood.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Geremek Affair
Bronislaw Geremek, French historian and Polish politicians, may lose his seat in the European Parliament: he refuses to sign a statement, per a new Polish law, declaring that he did not collaborate with secret state police during the communist era. He has resisted because, first, he already signed a statement, and second, the law is part of a larger purge of intellectual and bureaucrats in Poland:
I already made [such a declaration] in 2004, when I campaigned for the European elections, and now I feel as if I live in the country of King Ubu. . . . I believe that the law of lustration in its current form violates moral rules and threatens liberty of expression, the independence of the media nd the autonomy of the university. It engenders a form of ministry of truth and memory police. (full statement, in French)Colleagues have rushed to defend him, noting his history resisting communism:
[Daniel Cohn-Bendit:] We have fought Stalinism with Geremek, and we will protect our colleague without hesitation from a government that behaves either in a Stalinist or fascist manner.This affair comes as Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, has come under scrutiny for his administrations intolerant policies, especially toward homosexuality.
(Crossposted at The Rhine River)
Monday, April 23, 2007
Besieging the Ivory Tower: Blogs in History
Zid offers a paper that he will present soon on the future of blogs in history ("Weblogs: Workshops of the historian"). Give him some comments (it's in French, but he can read your English comments).
Because the historian entrenched in his ivory tower does not discuss with amateurs who try to reconstruct the past in their own manner; the historian entrenched in his ivory tower cannot understand the actions of genealogists, without whom access to the archives would be more difficult; the historian entrenched in his ivory tower lets the state or the [elites] respond to the negationists who attack daily life; the historian cannot entrench himself in his ivory tower. He must put his research in the service of a type of democratic humanism. And the blog allows us to communicate like never before. [My apologies to Zid for this rough translation.]
Car un historien retranché dans sa tour d'ivoire ne discutera pas avec des amateurs qui essaient de faire de la reconstitution historique à leur façon ; un historien retranché dans sa tour d'ivoire ne pourra comprendre le mouvement des généalogistes sans lesquels l'accès aux archives serait rendu encore plus difficile qu'il n'est aux chercheurs ; un historien retranché dans sa tour d'ivoire laissera l'Etat ou les grands pontes répondre aux négationnistes qui attaquent au quotidien ; un historien ne peut être retranché dans sa tour d'ivoire. C'est son devoir de chercheur au service d'un certain humanisme démocratique. Et le blog nous permet de communiquer comme jamais.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
"Nicolas Sarkozy, Why Did Your Father Flee Hungary?"
That's the chorus of "Un Hongrois chez les Gaulois (A Hungarian among the Gauls)" by reggae star Zêdess. Taking revenge for all the racailles, the song mocks Sarkozy's notion of "chosen immigration" (the current French minister of the interior and presidential candidate having descended from refugees in flight). Take a listen ... it's a fun song.
(Perhaps an American band can write a similar response to Tancredo, Goode and the like? Perhaps TV on the Radio?)
Saturday, December 2, 2006
The Good Citizen
Are you a good American? Perhaps one way of knowing is taking the US Citizenship and Immigration Services' new test for incoming citizens. It's not hard. Everyone here will breeze through it, even the Brits. I expected it to be harder, perhaps nefariously so, but I would note that some concepts have cultural meanings: only in the United States would constitution be seen purely as a printed document, and self-government would be a Pandora's box that Americans would not want to open if foreign definitions were in use.
The last year has been tough on immigrants, legal and otherwise. The US was not the only country to create new tests for immigrants, tests that intend to assess the quality of the potential citizen. The Migration Policy Institute's top ten migration stories of 2006 shows higher walls being errected around Western nations to people from other parts of the world. The top story, perhaps, says it all: "Good-bye Multiculturalism--Hello Assimilation?":
In 2006, European politicians dealt multiculturalism numerous public blows, which the media was only too happy to cover. Multiculturalism, policymakers essentially said, has failed to adequately integrate immigrants and their descendants.
Since the late 1990s, Europe's emphasis on strict integration policy has increased: learn our language, our history, our culture, and live by our laws and values. The UK, which didn't require a citizenship test until 2005, fully implemented the test this year, and Germany's regional governments introduced tests on top of the 600-hour, federally mandated language courses.
However, the Netherlands has taken the hardest line. As of March 15, prospective immigrants from nearly every country (EU and Western countries excepted) must take and pass a "civic integration exam" at one of the country's 138 embassies before they can be issued a visa.
Included in the exam's optional study packet is a controversial DVD entitled "Coming to the Netherlands." The two-hour video shows prospective immigrants what they can expect, including men who kiss each other and women who go topless at Dutch beaches (an edited version is available in countries where such material is banned). The message: Anyone offended should not come.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
G-d, Government and Butter
Imperial Germany's Reichstag was never a place for serious work. Deputies either rubber- stamped the Chancellor's proposals, or else they shouted each other down. That does not mean that their verbal sparring was unproductive. Hermann von Mallinckrodt, who represented the disenchanted of Münster and was a leader of the Catholic Zentrumspartei, pressed relentlessly for parity: the administration and bureaucracy of Germany and its states should reflect their confessional make-up. The officials in the states and provinces were overwhelmingly Protestant, and generally unsympathetic to the Catholic populations they administered. The elimination of the Catholic section of the ministry of religious affairs made the imbalance glaring. Instead, the number of Catholics in the administration should be proportional to the population.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
A Little French Politics
Mitterand used the anti-terrorism service to spy on starlets and political enemies. Juppé ripped off the city to pay the salaries of RPR (conservative party) employees. Villepin implicated Sarkozy in the Clearstream debacle to discredit him in the upcoming presidential campaign. Should we be surprised by this headline:
60% of French citizens see their elected officials as corruptActually, it's better than that: of the remaining 40%, three-quarters refused to answer the question. Only 10% believed in the integrity of French politicians! (This is all according to a report that should be released in the next few days by Centre de Recherches Politiques de Sciences Po (CEVIPOF).)
Ségolène Royal had drawn attention outside of France as potentially the next woman to be elected head of state, but political anthropologist Marc Abélès says that her style--her approach to political discourse--is a break from the politics of the past. (Is she's the French Howard Dean? I think she does him better.) On the one hand, she uses her blog, Désirs d'avenir (Future Desires), to realize a dynamic, less asymetrical relationships between politician and public, very muc realizing the potential and realities of the blogosphere. On the other, rather than argumentation on the basis of ideological differences, she accepts the collapse of those differences.
What the candidate and her team have understood is that one need not produce a majority opinion as much as the possibility of that the greatest number of people will enter into the debate, expressing their opinions ... Diversity, and not head-on opposition. It is clear that there no longer exists a "left vote" or a "right vote" that is the same on every issue.
Absorption capacity has been thrown out with regard to the expansion of the EU: concern for how new members fit into the overall mix. The fear that limitless expansion would weaken and dilute central institutions is real, but as Thomas Ferenczi points out, such concerns presuppose the need for new members to assimilate the practices of established members. Ferenczi says that absorption capacity is an important concept in measuring up Turkey for membership, but that "new memberships are accompanied by institutional reforms." I don't think it is different for an international organization as a nation: expansion occurs contiguously, and as the limits of the nation increase, diversity must be accomodated. Expansion goes hand in hand with reform.
The Sun King's liaisons were notorious, but were they political sexuality? The NY Times has a good review of Antonia Fraser's new book on Louis XIV and his women. I am, however, a bit wary of the positive spin that Fraser puts on his affairs:
This period, during which Louis enjoyed the “undiluted love of his mother” and witnessed her mostly able leadership — at her death, he memorialized her as “among the great kings of France” — may have established in him a respect for and comfort with dynamic women that led to his “variegated philanderings.
Still, I love this characterization of aristocratic sexuality:
Perhaps, on the domestic front, some innate evolutionary imperative, an awareness of the incestuousness of it all, led many of them — not just Louis XIV but also Charles II of England and a number of “princes of the blood” — into compulsive adultery as a means of expanding the gene pool.
(Crossposted at The Rhine River, here and here.)
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Second Acts in French Lives
Alain Juppé--he's back! The former prime minister of France, after serving fourteen months in jail and another year of political exclusion (for puting public funds to personal use), will again become the mayor of Bordeaux.
The French can be merciless with their politicians. Always suspecting them of corruption, ferreting them out, and becoming enraged at the relevation of their misdeeds--the public has a low tolerance level. Moreso than Americans, dare I say? However, many hommes de politique find their way back in government, forgiven at least by their home constituencies. The public does not endlessly resent them. By comparison, the rare American politician who is caught is pursued to the end of her or his days. Marion Barry is the exception, not the rule.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
More French Exceptionalism?
[Use Don Adams voice:] Would you believe that French Muslims are among the happiest Muslims in the Western World?
A study by the Pew Research Center suggests that the riots of Fall 2005 don't reflect a failure of the French model of assimilation, nor do they reflect special dissatisfaction among French Muslims for their place in society--at least vis-à-vis other western nations.
Based on poll results, French Muslims 1) have the same concerns of Muslims in other countries, 2) although they are more likely to regard unfavorably the US and the War on Terror, they are more likely to regard them favorably as well, 3) more suspicious of the ascent of anti-Israeli politics (a.k.a. Islamo-Fascism); 4) more likely to feel at home in the West. Here are some charts:
French Muslims appear to be more opinionated, more skeptical, and generally more accepting of the values of their nation than their brethren in other countries. Are French Muslims more French than Muslim? Perhaps, although the conclusion of the pollsters--that "the French need take no integrationist lessons from their European neighbors"--is dubious. French Muslims may feel more French than British Muslims feel British, but the question of how minorities feel about their citizenship and nationality has, in the past, produced highly deceptive results. Those who claim to be true French may have more to say about how integrated French Muslims really are.
[Cross-posted at The Rhine River.]
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Günter Grass: Hero takes a fall
Günter Grass, German novelist and Nobel Prize winner, broke sixty years of silence to admit that he belonged to the Waffen SS.
Als Fünfzehnjähriger hatte er sich noch als Hitlerjunge freiwillig zu den U-Booten gemeldet, mit siebzehn wurde Grass einberufen und kam vom Arbeitsdienst zur Division „Frundsberg“, die zur Waffen-SS gehörte.The Frankürter Allgemeine carries an interview in which Grass talks about the Waffen SS and the forthcoming memoir on the subject:
When he was fifteen he freely reported to a U-Boat as part of the Hitler Youth, at seventeen Grass was conscripted and joined as part of his service the Frundsberg Division, which was part of the Waffen SS.
Mein Schweigen über all die Jahre zählt zu den Gründen, warum ich dieses Buch geschrieben habe. Das mußte raus, endlich. ...
All these years of silence is the reason why I have written this book. It must come out, finally.
Crossposted at The Rhine River.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Not Your Daddy's Totalitarianism
Daniel Vernet, in Le Monde, explaining why WWII and Cold War analogies don't describe Islamic fundamentalism, and the War on Terror is not a repeat of the history of the 1930s and 1940s:
If Islamic fundamentalism is a totalitarian ideolgy, sometimes using terrorism, and if it should be fought as such, it does not use the instruments of the state that the great totalitarianisms of the 20th century applied to their ambitions. The methods of classical war will come to nothing in the end. To make the wrong diagnosis unleashes an error of prescription and new catastrophes. See Iraq.
Crossposted from The Rhine River.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Let's Celebrate Abolition (We'll figure out what it means later)
Several months ago Jacques Chirac designated today, May 10, as the day to commemorate the abolition of slavery by the Second French Republic in 1848. Forced to respond to the uproar over legislation that called French imperialism a positive force in the development of non-European peoples, Chirac chose this one day to prove that the republic and slavery were incompatible. He repeated this formula again in a ceremony at the Jardin du Luxembourg:
Nous devons regarder ce passé sans concessions mais aussi sans rougir car la république est née avec le combat contre l'esclavage. 1794, 1848: la République, c'est l'abolition.
If it were only more true. While the abolition had a positive effect in France's Caribean colonies, African slavery was intensified even though the slave trade came to an end: slavery became more prominent among Africans as markets moved to the continental interior. When the Third French Republic expanded from its Senegalese ports across western Africa, administrators did almost nothing to end the institution. They allied with and propped up the elites who kept slaves on their farms; in some cases, runaway slaves were returned to their masters. Missionaries, notably the White Fathers, were among the few who helped slaves to free themselves (although the conditions of Sub-Saharan Africa made it difficult for Africans to free themselves from the missionaries.) If slavery declined in French Africa, it was because the slaves refused to heed it: as Martin Klein argued, the slaves simply walked away in 1905-7.
The republic's abolition of slavery did not end the institution of slavery in the republic's territory. Expansion of France's empire seemed to depend on tolerating it, perhaps accepting it as the natural condition of many Africans. Hopefully Chirac will work the slaves' own agency in the republic's commitment to liberty and equality.
Friday, May 5, 2006
The Jeunes and the Restless
This map represents six demographic trends in France, according to the Institut National de la Statistique et des ɉtudes Économiques. According to the report (pdf), young French men and women tend to flock to larger cities in their late teens and early twenties, usually for education, and return to their home towns and villages. What is more interesting is that in their mid-twenties to late thirties, when they search for permanent employment, they choose to go south and west (to either cities or suburbs.) Overall, the nation is shifting southward. The large, dark blue swath in the Northwest, where heavy industries once dominated, is a zone of negative migration: young people are leaving for the areas of high-tech industry. (Northern Alsace is almost an island in the deep blue sea, attracting both students and young people seeking employment.)
Paris, as to be expected, has its own characteristics. The spike in arrivals occurs at older ages than other large cities, and the departures occur much later. Where they really differ is in the ages in which migratory trends from the city becomes negative. In the large cities, students stay as long as they studies require, then leave. In Paris, young people stick around till their thirties, then leave. For the former, the age in which the population stabilizes (near zero departures by age) is in the mid twenties. For Paris, the numbers remain negative from the thirties until the seventies. This suggests that young people who move to Paris believe that they will be able to make a career and a home for themselves in the capital, but experience tremendous disappointment as they get older, leading to emigration of middle-aged Parisians. This may say something about the intensity of the Paris protests over the CPE in recent months. The Parisian youth sit at an intersection of hope and discontent, waiting for opportunity, but seeing people not much older than them give up for greener (or in this case, redder) pastures.
[Warning: I am colorblind, so don't be too harsh if I got the colors wrong.]
Crossposted at The Rhine River
Friday, March 24, 2006
Spanish spoken here
Attempting to frame immigration issues, CNN's Lou Dobbs pulled out a quote from Theodore Roosevelt on the unity of American identity and culture and the obligation of immigrants to assimilate.
In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
The backdrop for thus quote was the tens of thousands who protested new immigration legislation in the streets of Phoenix.
This Dobbs moment was too cute: a quote from a beloved president on an issue of urgency. I wish that Dobbs had first reflected on the fallacy of what Roosevelt said before using it. This is the worst of 'bad history': choosing a quote that itself warped the reality of its time. Addressing immigrants, Roosevelt lumped together all those who came from a non-European, non-English speaking culture into the same category. Yet many Californios, Nuevo Mexicanos, and Tejanos were not immigrants. They had been in their territories for a long time, becoming Americans by annexation and purchase. Until late in the nineteenth century, these territories were better reached from northern Mexican states than eastern and mid-western American states. The experiences of Mexicans in America up to Roosevelt's presidency were exclusionary, not integrative. New Mexico, the most developed part of the Mexican Borderlands, languished as statehood was withheld--despite the eagerness of the Hispanos to prove their loyalty. Moreover, there is something ironic that Roosevelt, hero of the Spanish-American War, would take this attitude since his actions in war brought about the annexation of so much Spanish-speaking territory; the people whom he conquered would be denied membership in the nation.
Anti-immigrant discourse focuses on the introduction of foreign elements that will corrode American culture. Language is but one of these elements that, in their opinion, is in danger. Not that Americans own English ... even Britains no longer own a language that has been appropriated by many as a medium of globalized intercourse; the purity of English is elusive. But proponents of harsh immigration laws should realize the truth. Spanish has always been spoken here. It is not foreign; it was not imported covertly for subversive purposes. (Indeed, it was a language used to dominate Native Americans as much as English.) Moreover, the ability to speak Spanish was preserved in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (along with all cultural traits.) Calling people who speak Spanish immigrants won't make America a country that speaks only English.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Germany since Heine
Friday is the 150th year of the death of Heinrich Heine. Perhaps the greatest German poet after Goethe, he died in exile in Paris. It was an inauspicious beginning to German nationalism's relationship with his legacy. Few were willing to embrace him as a poet of national import. He was seen as an outsider, who wrote beautifully in the Germany language (especially as the poet behind Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe), but no German. Even his hometown, Dusseldorf, took a long time before it embraced his legacy, and then with some embarrassment.
[Crossposted to The Rhine River.]
Sunday, January 29, 2006
"Law, History and the Obligation of Memory"
The loi 23 février 2005 (the one that said that colonization benefited the colonized) not only angered politicians in Africa and the Carribean (as well as minority leaders in France), it also annoyed a group of prominent historians: they petitioned the government to abrogate all memorial laws, including those concerning the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. So far, it seems that Chirac will ignore the offending article of the law(saying that it is unconstitutional because it is regulative in character rather than legislative.) Sarkozy, as the chief of the ruling UMP, asked Arno Klarsfeld to report on the law, as well as the other French memorial laws, and their relationship to history. (It wasn't helped that Klarsfeld has dual citizenship with Israel.) Thinking that this might be of general interest to historians, I've translated a number of passages (don't take it for my opinion.)
For the authoritarian and dictatorial regimes that struck Europe in the 20th century, the memory of past events constituted an essential issue in the writing of history to conform to the dominating ideology. For parliamentary and democratic regimes, these issues were considerable for entirely different reasons.
All memories are different, sometimes they are antagonistic, but all have been painful and all are part of the French collective memory. The respective obligation of memory forces [those who suffered] to militate so that collective injustices and the suffering are solemnly recognized by the State, whether it is the nation, the republic, or France.
The historians who signed the petition of 13 December say that they are “disturbed by the frequent political intervention in the interpretation of the events of the past ... .” This emotion is astonishing. Does it mean that, according to them, it is not for men of politics to appreciate, according to their convictions and the public nature, the events related to our history .... The signatories claim that it is only for historians to ‘write history.’ Historians do not write history, men, people make history; historians content themselves to write about history. The petitioners conclude: “History is not a juridical object. In a free state, neither Parliament nor judicial authority defines the truth of history ... We demand the abrogation of these legislative provisions that are unworthy of a democratic regime.”
These historians are wrong. Interpreting the past is also a domain of politics, especially for the parliamentarians representing the nation. Sometimes one must promote memorial laws, like those of the past that favored the union of the nation and the people and also that recognized the ensemble of identities that coexist in the republic. If the historian establish facts with rigor and precision, he cannot assume the task of legislating who is to be protected and consoled in the interest of national cohesion.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Godwin, American Style?
This morning, Tim Russert asked whether references to slavery should be considered inappropriate, like references to Nazi Germany, because they are both too unique. Of course, he raised the question in the context of Sen. Clinton calling the leadership style of the Congress a 'plantation system.' I'd say no--slavery is not unique, it was (and is) a crime committed by many societies, with a variety of economic systems.
What's interesting about 'Godwin's Rule' is that it reflects the patterns of contentious arguments: two sides diverging from one another, seeing each other in the most hostile light. Are references to slavery in southern states used the same way? Are comparisons between Dred Scott and Roe the equivalent to saying "like Hitler"? Perhaps, but for the most part I don't see references to slavery being used in the same way as references to Nazi Germany. In the latter, a simplistic comparison is used to associate something with a notorious regime. Although potentially invidious, metaphors derived from slavery may be more useful. Using slavery as a reference uses something native to the American experience to discuss problems in contemporary society. Banning comparisons, moreover, may come from the desire to expunge slavery from national memory.
Monday, January 2, 2006
Ten Events to Understand Contemporary France
High school kids know or don't know important things about history, and I'd give myself a concussion every day if I banged my head on my desk in disbelief. I might be happy if they knew of the revolution, that it had something to do with defining democracy and liberty. Undergraduates should know more; too bad the university won’t always compel them to learn it. David Gelernter has more faith in our high school and college graduates: they should know the Dreyfus Affair!
Matt Yglesias feels that the Dreyfus affair is too obscure.
But seriously, the Dreyfus Affair would fall pretty low on my list of "need to know" historical events. ... But it makes perfect sense for lots of people's historical knowledge to not be oriented to these things. There's only so much you can expect a given person to be well-informed about and the sort of thing that I (and, apparently, Gelertner) happen to think is interesting isn't obviously the most important part of the human saga.
Never mind that it is probably the most significant event in Modern Jewish history, after the Holocaust and founding of Israel. The Dreyfus Affair carries deep significance for gauging attitudes on ethnicity, religion, gender, and civil rights. I have used it numerous times to explain ethnic unrest and the limits of tolerance. It is more than a lens from which to see attitudes and opinions; Dreyfus significantly shaped political alignments and ideas about secularism and assimilation.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Historians in Revolt!
Reacting to the the French National Assembly's dabbling in history and colonial memory, prominent French historians released this statement:
"... The historian is not a slave to current events. The historian does not dump contemporary ideological schemes on the past and does not introduce to past events today's sensibilities. ...
[Full statement, untranslated, under the fold.]
Monday, December 12, 2005
The Jewel in the Meter Stick
If Niall Ferguson redeemed British imperialism (a debatable point), did he redeem all imperialism?
France’s National Assembly as been debating a bill (loi du 23 février) to create a curriculum on France’s imperial legacy. The proposal, part of an effort to reconcile with Algeria, when UMP deputy Christian Vanneste insisted on an amendment (article 4) that confirmed "the positive role of the French presence overseas, notably in North Africa." The otherwise innocuous proposal caused a firestorm throughout French academia and into its oversees territories. Consequently, the intelligentsia of Martinique refused to meet with the minister of the interior on the first high level tour of the French Carribean in many years because his party refused to abrogate the amendment.
Both de Villepin and Chirac have walked on eggshells around the issue. Last week, de Villepin said, "There is no one French memory, but memories. Some of them are lively, hypersensitive, and ailing. ... There is the memory of those who were thrown into the holds of the galleons. ... It is not up to Parliament to write history, that’s not its role."
Monday, December 5, 2005
Sweet Dreams are made of these
In La mémoire collective, Maurice Halbwachs doubted that universal(izing) history could be anything more that an intellectual project. So vast, so ancient, it lacked the texture and urgency that national history had in the popular consciousness.
History can present itself as the universal memory of humanity. But there is no universal memory. All collective memory is supported by a group that is limited in space and time. One cannot collect into one tableau the totality of past events except by detaching them from the groups that guard memory ... history is interested above all in the differences [between societies], and makes abstractions of the similarities for which there exists no memory ...
[crappy translation is my own]
To bring immediacy to historical elements, social groups must deploy rituals and symbols that takes history from classroom into the public sphere and gives it emotional import. Consequently, meaningful history, capably of becoming memorialized, is precious, circumscribed by spatial and temporal boundaries (especially of a nation.)
Some events are capable of being imagined even though they do not belong to an unbroken memorial tradition (like the Trojan War to the early modern English readership.) Nevertheless, the notion that what is taught in Western Civ courses will probably never find any meaning outside of the classroom weighs heavily on those who teach it.
Hugo Schwyzer's recent complaint that the first half of Western Civ tends to be a quick-step march from Sumer to the Bastille stresses the point further (to be fair, we modernists should be able to pick up the story at Aquinas). However, I don'’t worry that something important will be lost as the span of pre-modernity is stretched beyond recognition. Rather, I worry that despite the best judiciousness, speedy lecturing produces lacunas that betray the founding suppositions of Western Civ courses: an ongoing tradition that becomes recognizable as the West.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Onward and Outward
Fritz Lang seduced Weimar audiences (as well as a few contemporary film critics) with his bold vision of the future city and architecture in Metropolis (review). Tall towers reach to the sky; automobiles move high above the ground on raised highways; biplanes weaving between the buildings; the workers toil far below on the sunless surface. Lang had taken his impression of the New York cityscape to the extreme. The design elements (as well as the robot) often overpower a conventional story about labor relations as well as a much needed message about moderation and mediation.
Lang had the opportunity to see the true future city unfold before his eyes when he hid from the Nazis in Los Angeles and filmed thoughtful noires. Against the backdrop of criticism and the decline of the efficient Red Car system (links to histories and bibliographies) (immortalized by another film, Who framed Roger Rabbit?), Los Angeles broke from the pattern of American cities reaching to the sky to create, what Edward Soja has called, the postmodern city.
But here is the kicker: Los Angeles is the densest city in the United States (HT: Kevin Drum).
Monday, September 5, 2005
Awash in Civilization
David Sucher, an author on urban planning and community development, wrote the following to me in a comment:
Do you folks think it is worth rebuilding if it requires massive and expensive flood control measures? How much will you pay?
It seems to me that much of the city is in a place which current "sustainable growth" thinking would reject out of hand.
Despite the tone of his comment, I don’t think that he has decided himself whether or not New Orleans should be rebuilt, rather noting that the landscape and the environment of the city make reconstruction almost inconceivable. [Added:] He has posted some thoughts here and here.
David knows more about healing a city and keeping it healthy than I. I can speak first as an historian, second as a regionalist, which means that I only know of the historical challenges faced by cities as they develop a relationship with the natural and the social world. With all due respect to David, I don’t think that sustainable development, at least seen from inside the city, can be the sole, or even major, factor by which to judge reconstruction. Indeed, New Orleans’ disadvantage, its position with respect to major bodies of water, is also its advantage, and historically speaking, the growth of cities has always been a function of their relationship with water.
Note: I consider this to be a vital conversation, not just because of New Orleans, but because other cities will face environmental crises in the future. Everyone should chime in.
More below the fold.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Opponents only, no collaborators
Czech PM Paroubek apologized to Germans who were expelled in 1945 by Benes. Well, at least those Germans who were "anti-Fascists."
"We are correcting an injustice committed against our German co-citizens,'' Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said. The apology is for "the opponents of Nazism who were affected by measures taken by former Czechoslovakia against its so-called enemy citizens after WWII.''
"We are documenting that the Benes decrees did not refer to anti-fascists,'' Paroubek continued. "We are expressing our admiration, appreciation and apology to the significant minority of those Czechoslovak citizens of German descent,'' who "had remained faithful.''
The conditionality is delicious. Who are these loyal ethnic Germans, the Sudetenlaender who resisted the annexation, occupation, who did not benefit from the special privileges given to ethnic Germans over ethnic Slavs and Jews? What commission determined who they were?
The government promises to locate these people and to remunerate the loss of property, but I think that they will step into their own historiographic nightmare as they try to sort out what it meant to have collaborated and resisted. Good Luck!
(Cross-posted at The Rhine River.)
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Filling the Void
In 1936, as the German army moved across the Rhine, no British soldiers were in Cologne to confront them. No Belgian troops were in Aachen to prevent them from reaching the border. No French troops were in Trier to control the crowds. And no American troops were in sight to protect the rights of minorities and foreigners. They had already left.
The remilitarization of the Rhineland is a contentious memory, a point at which Hitler might have been confronted. With the withdrawal of settlers from Gaza it is not surprising that people would use 1936 to judge the prudence of Israeli actions. Unfortunately, the remilitarization was perhaps another failure of the Allies to prevent Germany from reconstituting its military strength than a point of no return.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Tele-history
Alun, at his eponymous archeology blog, hits a subject that is probably close to many historians' fears: the television documentary that tries to show that some long held fact is actually false. Can good history also be good television? As Alun points out, the goals of television programming differ greatly from an archeological excavation. Usual suspect Sharon weighs in as well, noting that many of these shows search for a single source -- missing link that debunk years of thorough research.
Television clearly is not academia, which is its major drawback as a vehicle for history (or archeology). It likes to tell a linear story; more often than not that story is not what happened (if that can be portrayed with certainty), but a revelatory narrative in which old knowledge gives way to new. Tele-history may tell more about the present than the past, casting doubt on the traditional methods of the academy and replacing them with something else, more often than not technology (as in the PBS documentary on the map of Vinland that I discussed). Unfortunately, these technological sources are not themselves unimpeachable, and the producers must change the questions that have been asked by historians in order to fit the methods they wish to employ.
Friday, June 17, 2005
"La Samar"
As a conditional Francophile, I hate Paris. I go to the so-called City of Light for two reasons: to arrive and depart from CDG, and to arrive and depart from Gare de l’Est. Of course, I often must stay at least one night on every visit. The five-hour train trip to Strasbourg wears down the traveler who has already spent nine hours on an airplane. (I could fly through Stuttgart, but that would involve more flights, and I hate flying).
Monday was one of those stays. My wife stayed with me as long as she could – as long as a graduate student’s income allows – and our two bunnies were probably feeling a bit abandoned. My role was to convey her to the airport, and then return to finish my archival research (yes, I fit it in between bottles of Riesling). We stayed in the Latin Quarter, in one of several haunts we like near the Sorbonne. Balzac described the area as “one of the poorest and dingiest back-streets in Paris.” For us the Latin Quarter has the appeal of interesting shops and lots of bookstores.
Monday afternoon was no different. We avoided most of Paris, staying within the arrondissement for the most part. Our only divergence was to walk down river to see my favorite building in Paris, La Samaritaine, the last great grand magasin, a relic from the revolution of commerce and fashion begun by Haussmann’s demolition of old neighborhoods. Between the imposing weight of the monumental architecture and the voluminous, sloped roofs of the apartment buildings, the art deco "La Samar" stands out as a breath of lightness at the Pont Neuf. The interior (apart from the bottom floor, which now looks like every department store) is gorgeous, with the grand staircase in the center, light railings, and art nouveau decorations on the roof, and the glassed dome on top. Perhaps La Samar owed its survival to the fact that, as architecture, it accomplished best the aesthetic of the grand magasin: steel, light, levity, space. We walked down the staircase, looking at the (seemingly outmoded) furniture and fashions, until we were forced out by the overpowering aromas from the fragrance section. At least I bought a cool pair of striped socks.
On Tuesday the store management announced the La Samar would close “to bring fire emergency measure up to standards”. It is feared, by both business analysts and labor leader, that the closure will be permanent.
Is it the end of an era? The grands magasins changed how people shopped, taking the wares from the stodgy shopkeepers who guarded them behind counters and put them in reach of the customers, who intoxicated by the abundance of textiles in their reach and the beautiful salesgirls, succumbed to new styles and passions. They gave Emile Zola and other writers new social groups to analyze: the patriarchal family that sits atop the company; the male managers who prey upon the poor salesgirls; the wealthy woman who, despite her money, is overcome by kleptomania; and finally the white-collar workers who, with their brains and modest incomes and not much else, could emulate the lifestyle of the entrepreneur. The grands magasins brought the joy of fast shopping to the masses; one could ask why fast food was not the next step.
The grands magasins stand out less in contemporary Paris. Almost every arrondissement has been transformed, first by Haussmann, but always remade as new immigrants and new inspirations settled in the city. Now they are tame. Tourists are glad to hike up Montmartre or walk along the Rue Pigalle, the former haunts of prostitutes, drunken artists, and soldiers on leave. Even the Latin Quarter is accessible, as well as attractive, to yours truly. Perhaps the process set forward by Haussmann, which made the grands magasins possible, also led to their decline.
Sadly I took no pictures of La Samaritaine. I only have the socks that I bought. And they’re dirty, so you won’t get to see them.
(Cross-posted to The Rhine River).
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Passing into Memory
Le Monde reports that philosopher Paul Ricoeur died yesterday.
More reporting:
- In the Face of History, the Search for a Just Memory (in French)
- A Supporter, an Inspiration (in French)
- Biography and Reaction (in French)
- Daniel Riot links to one of his last interviews.
- Entries from Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Liberation looks at Ricoeur's accomplishments -- thanks, Ralph. (In French)
- Brandon at Siris points to this on-line chapter: "What Makes Us Think? A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain" by Changeux and Ricoeur. (Finally, something in English)
Added Monday, May 23:
- Mainstream Baptist gives a brief look at Ricoeur's influence on his dissertation in theology.
- Fido the Yak links to Ricoeur's speech from when he accepted the John W. Kluge Prize: Asserting Personal Capacities and Pleading for Recognition.
- Le Figaro finally gives its obituary. They also account for his involvement in 1968 and gives an interview of one of his students, Olivier Abel.
Friday, May 6, 2005
Weaklings
The German Open began with an unfortunate incident. A tennis club published a pamphlet of its history that describes the termination of Jewish membership in the 1930s as a "Golden Age."