Search

Roxanne Panchasi, Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France between the Wars (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009). Is there anything more to say about the nervous tragedy of French [...]

The politics of filmic reconstruction and reenactment as forms of historical representation are explored in the light of the 1999 Peter Watkins film 'La Commune' (Paris, 1871) that is situated in relationship to debates regarding the contemporary media's versions of the past. It is argued that the film's anachronisms are intentionally placed to question assumptions about objectivity, authenticity and temporality that define History as a discipline.

Laura-Lee Downs, Children in the Promised Land: Working-Class Movements and the Colonies de Vacances in France, 1880-1960 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2002) IN THE INTRODUCTION to Childhood in the [...]

Focuses on the evolution of prosthesis in France during the first World War. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of the male body in World War 1 France; `Wier Mitchell' phenomenon; Use of prosthetics and bodily reconstruction.

Over 2000 nuclear weapons explosions were conducted worldwide between 1945 and 1996. Most of these high-yield explosions took place at nuclear test sites in the Global South: among them, the Algerian Sahara and the Kazakh steppe, where their respective colonising powers (at the time) France and the Soviet Union tested their nuclear arsenal. Contemporary Algeria and Kazakhstan still bear the egregious impact of these nuclear tests. The perceptions and demands of the local population, including victims and survivors of the testing, related to addressing the nuclear past have not been comprehensively investigated. Little is known about the local-regional resistance to these tests, aside from the Sahara Protest Team in 1959 and the anti-nuclear Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement in 1989. Our aim is to develop this line of research by considering the links between anti-nuclear movements and colonialism in Algeria and Kazakhstan. By revisiting these cases using a decolonial lens, we develop a more comprehensive understanding of resistance to nuclear testing in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Chinese leftist intellectuals’ visions of China’s future as they were published in a special issue of Dongfang zazhi (Eastern Miscellany) in 1933. It places their texts in the international tradition of socialism and in particular the tensions between Marxism and “utopian socialism.” Two variants of socialism can be identified in the Chinese texts: “Datong socialism,” the moral vision of a society of freedom and equality, and Soviet socialism, the vision of an industrialized society with features and institutions as in the Soviet Union. Supporters of both variants identified with the “masses,” but remained elitist in that they spoke on behalf of these masses and claimed an intellectual niche in the proletarian society of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Modern & Contemporary France is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Employing phenomenological theory, this paper argues that German World War I soldiers’ introduction to the gas mask represents a salient historical moment in the human relationship to modern chemical technology. As a protective device, the gas mask was intended to save soldiers from a horrible death by asphyxiation. In doing so, it forced soldiers to directly confront the new technological landscape of the modern World War I battlefield. While the mask proved genuinely effective in its ability to filter poison gases, it required constant vigilance from gas-weary soldiers. This so-called ‘gas discipline’ would allow men to survive and even thrive in a newly dangerous modern world. However, the physical and mental stress of this existence, often led to breakdowns in soldier discipline and failures in gas protection. Thus, the soldiers’ relationship to the gas mask revealed the limits of technological trust for the earliest ‘chemical subjects’ of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 20 July 1924, the American Committee for Devastated France (ACDF) formally transferred its property in the Aisne province to French authorities. The three-hour ceremony precipitated French and American commemorations of ACDF activities, and public and private expressions of French gratitude for the humanitarian aid 328 American ACDF volunteers had provided to the Aisne's inhabitants for seven years. Yet the gifts, performances and speeches by local residents and international luminaries failed to catalyse what US Ambassador Myron T. Herrick hoped would become a greater ‘international partnership’ between France and the USA. This paper contends that this failure stemmed not from insignificant acts of remembrance towards the American Committee on the part of the Aisne's beneficiaries and French and American statesmen. Instead, the ephemeral recollection of the ACDF's legacy in both nations derived from the cognitive dissonance between the transnational goodwill the American organization and French citizens expressed towards each other, and the international antipathy with which each nation state generally regarded the other's world view in the interwar era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the history of international broadcasting using shortwave radio, focusing on the U.S. and France between 1925 and 1942. A partnership was created in 1931 to exchange broadcasts between the French Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones (PTT) and the U.S. National Broadcasting Company (NBC), a subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The broadcasts were either heard directly on shortwave radios, or were heard on AM radio sets with the use of relays. Broadcasting during World War Ii is also discussed.

The article presents an overview about various contributors on historical aspects. The article also provides a brief educational background about contributors including LYON Macfie Alexander, MASON Mark, PANCHASI Roxanne, WALKER Jonathan, WARD Chris, and WIEBER Sabine. The article also highlights their current focuses on historical theory.