Book Review: Julius Fein, Hitler’s Refugees and the French Response, 1933-1938

Book Review: Julius Fein, Hitler’s Refugees and the French Response, 1933-1938. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2021. xii + 288 pp. Notes, biography and index. £92.00 U.K. (hb). ISBN 9-781-793622280

Maurice Thorez: a biography

Maurice Thorez (1900-1964) was a major figure in the history of twentieth-century France and European Communism for over three decades. Under his leadership, the French Communist Party (PCF) became France's largest political party and one of the most important communist parties in the West. Born in a mining village, Thorez left school at the age of 12 and would go on to helm the PCF in a rapid rise that paralleled Stalin's consolidation of power in the Soviet Union. After World War II, he became a minister, and briefly deputy prime minister, before the Cold War excluded communists from political power. The PCF became known as 'the party of Maurice Thorez', as a leader cult around Thorez was created that mirrored the cult of personality' around Stalin. This book is based on a wealth of original source material, including Thorez's diaries and notebooks. John Bulaitis outlines how Thorez's political life intersected with and was shaped by key historical events. At its heart, the book explores the paradox of the mass communist movement in France: its ability to fuse attachment to the French nation with fervent loyalty to the Soviet Union and Stalinist practices

Book Review: Gavin Bowd, The Last Communard

Review of Gavin Bowd, The Last Communard: Adrien Lejeune, the Unexpected Life of a Revolutionary, London & New York, Verso, 201

The Tithe War in England and Wales, 1881-1936

During the 1930s, farming communities waged a campaign of "passive resistance" against Tithe Rentcharge, the modern version of medieval tithe. Led by the National Tithepayers' Association, farmers refused to pay the charge, disrupted auctions of seized stock and joined demonstrations to prevent action by bailiffs. The National Government condemned their "unconstitutional action", ruled out changes in the law and mobilised police to support the titheowners. Meanwhile, the Church of England and lay titheowners - including Oxford and Cambridge colleges, public schools and major landowners - sought to vindicate their right to tithe; in a particularly shameful episode, the Church established a secret company to buy taken produce and remove it from farms. This "tithe war" was fought outside farms, in the courts, in the press and in the wider arena of public opinion. It posed problems for the Church, legal system, and every political party; split the National Farmers' Union; and provided opportunities for the British Union of Fascists and other sections of the extreme right to cause disturbance. Drawing on extensive archival research, accounts in local newspapers, and private papers, John Bulaitis traces the evolution of what has been described as this "curious rural revolt", from the late nineteenth century to its climax in 1936, when the Tithe Act brought an end to this form of tax

Book review: Jacques the Frenchman: Memories of the Gulag

Review of Jacques the Frenchman: Memories of the Gulag. By Jacques Rossi and Michèle Sarde

Review article: Emmanuel Bellanger & Julian Mischi (eds), Les territoires du communisme: Élus locaux, politiques publiques et sociabilités militantes Jean Vigreux, La faucille après le manteau: Le Communisme aux champs dans l’entre-deux-guerres.

Review article of two books on French Communism: Emmanuel Bellanger & Julian Mischi (eds), Les territoires du communisme: Élus locaux, politiques publiques et sociabilités militantes Jean Vigreux, La faucille après le manteau: Le Communisme aux champs dans l’entre-deux-guerres