Literature and the Right in Postwar France: The Story of the ‘Hussards’ by Nicholas Hewitt

Hewitt, Nicholas. Literature and the Right in Postwar France: The Story of the ‘Hussards.’ Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1996. 217 pages.

Since the mid-eighties, the publication of numerous books and articles in this country on the origins and history of French fascism from the turn of the century through the Occupation confirm that political and cultural reaciton in France inspires keen interest among American historians and literary critics. The translation of Zeev Sternhell’s controversial studies of the origins of French (and European) fascism and the publication of Robert Soucy’s meticulous accounts of the history of fascist movements in France up to 1940 have been complemented by the appearance of fine studies of literary and cultural fascism and collaboration, authored by Alice Kaplan and David Carroll, among others. Moreover, with the recent electoral successes of Jean-Marie LePen’s Front National, more contemporary forms of an indigenous French fascism are being discussed as well.