From the Capitoline Hill to the Tarpeian Rock? Free French coming out of war

This text explores the return of the Free French to metropolitan territory in 1944–45. The intense emotions provoked by rediscovering the soil of France and their compatriots were succeeded by more mixed and even bittersweet feelings. Very soon, dreams dreamed far away and for many years met the reality of a country deeply wounded by the defeat of 1940 and by the Occupation. The takeover of administrative and political power, and the beginnings of the purges, provoked clashes with the Allies and even more with the metropolitan Resistance, which were essentially quarrels of legitimacy. The violence of the fight for the Liberation mercilessly took its toll. Each and every person who had survived the conflict found the resumption of a personal and intimate life more difficult than expected. Finally, some of the hopes for renovation that had been developed throughout the war began to waver. This led to a frustration tinged with bitterness on which contrasting memories took root.Ce texte évoque le retour des Français libres sur le territoire métropolitain en 1944–45. Aux émotions intenses provoquées par les retrouvailles avec le sol de France et avec les compatriotes, ont succédé des sentiments plus mitigés, voire doux-amers. Très vite, les rêves nourris au loin et des années durant se sont heurtés à la réalité d’un pays profondément meurtri par la défaite de 1940 et par l’Occupation. La prise en mains des rênes administratives et politiques ainsi que les prémisses de l’épuration ont donné lieu à des heurts, quelquefois à des affrontements, avec les Alliés et, plus encore, avec la Résistance intérieure, c’est-à-dire à des querelles de légitimité. La violence des combats libérateurs a impitoyablement prélevé son dû. Pour chacune et chacun sur qui le conflit avait imprimé sa marque, la reprise d’une vie personnelle et intime s’est avérée plus difficile que prévu. Enfin, quelques-uns des espoirs de rénovation développés tout au long de la guerre ont commencé à faire long feu. Une certaine frustration teintée d’amertume en a découlé sur laquelle des mémoires contrastées ont pris racine

Jacques Frémeaux et Michèle Battesti (dir.), Sortir de la guerre, Paris, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2014, 404 p.

Est-il jamais possible de vraiment sortir de la guerre ? Celles et ceux, civils ou combattants, en uniforme ou non, qui se sont trouvés, volontairement ou à leur corps défendant, confrontés plus ou moins durablement au phénomène guerrier peuvent-ils en émerger pour de bon et, si oui, à quelles conditions ? Depuis quelque vingt années, ces questions font florès et sont abordées par le truchement de nouvelles grilles d’analyse émanant de nombreuses disciplines. Jacques Frémeaux et Michèle Batte..

Français libres à l’épreuve de la Libération

Largement composée de volontaires qui n’ont cessé de combattre depuis juin 1940, la 1re division française libre (DFL) connaît, d’août 1944 à août 1945, un parcours relativement difficile dont l’analyse fournit d’intéressantes pistes sur la sortie de guerre des « Free French ». Même s’ils sont convaincus d’avoir, presque à eux seuls, sauvé l’honneur de la France, les combattants de la DFL doivent rentrer dans le rang à l’automne 1944, au sein de l’armée française en reconstruction. Au long de la campagne de France, il leur faut progressivement oublier leurs origines, les méthodes de combat qui ont fait leur gloire, et leurs espoirs d’action politique pour retrouver une condition militaire plus traditionnelle. Dans le même temps, les retrouvailles avec leurs compatriotes, que ceux-ci aient été résistants ou non, ne leur apportent pas la reconnaissance escomptée. Au plan mémoriel, enfin, les désillusions ne sont pas non plus absentes. Une relative amertume en découle, et le repli sur les associations et amicales d’anciens.Free French and the challenge of the Liberation. Consisting largely of volunteers who had been fighting continuously since June 1940, the 1st Free French Division (DFL) underwent quite a difficult experience from August 1944 to August 1945. The analysis of what happened to the division offers some interesting research avenues concerning Free French demobilisation. The men of the 1st DFL, for all their conviction that they, almost alone, had upheld the honour of France, were obliged to take their place in a new French Army that was in the process of establishment in the autumn of 1944. As the French campaign of 1944-45 ran its course these men were progressively required to forget their origins, the combat techniques that had covered them in glory, and their hopes for a political role, in favour of re-locating themselves in a more traditional military situation. At the same time their encounters with their compatriots, whether people who has been in the Resistance or not, did not generate the recognition on which they had counted. And as far as the memory of what they had done was concerned, this too proved grounds for disillusionment. What ensued was a legacy of comparative bitterness, and a retreat into the bosom of old comrades and veterans’ associations

Livestock and Local Development: Going to a New Humananimal Relationship

Along the past ten years, the French National Agency for Research (ANR) has financed projects regarding livestock. Results of five projects were gathered to understand the long-term livestock trends. At the end of the 19th century, animal breeding was oriented towards the production of goods to meet the local, regional, national and global demand, according to the zone. The market gradually became the key-factor to norm both production and consumption. It is now integrating environmental norms and is starting to invest in the social domain. However, this economical vision of animal production does not take into account the other functions of livestock, from “farm fork” to “table fork”. So, in parallel to the multi-functionality of livestock at the farm level, which is mentioned by several authors, livestock has a significant role at the local scale. Furthermore, in the past four decades, animal production sector has known several serious scandals with severe consequences in human health. At the same time, the FAO scoop in 2006 about the significant environmental impact of animal breeding has chocked a large part of the human society. Hence, in parallel to the discredit of animal production towards the consumers, these successive crises have led a part of the local and global society to question the human-animal relationship. In this way, a large part of the urban population with no contact with the rural world, would easily believe in animal welfare, and break the supply chain leading to the slaughterhouse. And to confirm this trend, research institutes are already seeking alternatives to meat and animal proteins. Consequently, maybe it is time now to think imagine other farming systems based on other human-animal relationships and other environment-society interactions; and perhaps to establish an adequate set of policies to strengthen this perspective

Livestock and Local Development: Going to a New Human-Animal Relationship

Along the last ten years, the French National Agency for Research (ANR) has financed several projects regarding livestock at local and global scale. Five of these projects decided to gather their results in order to better understand the long-term livestock dynamics and the scenarios for the future. Research actions have been developed in fifteen sites in diverse biomes located in seven countries of Europe, Africa, America and Asia. Review of literature and preliminary data collected in the sites showed the high complexity of the livestock dynamics. For example, in some cases, intensification of the livestock farming systems regards land. In other cases, intensification regards labor. In other cases, breeders are adopting more extensive practices. Similar process had been noticed for the farm size which increases or decreases according to the site and the type of farms. Diverse strategies have been mentioned regarding marketing, collective actions and environment impacts. To face this complexity, the analysis has been developed site by site and project by project, before a comparative approach

La Seconde Guerre mondiale dans Band of Brothers (HBO, 2001) et The Pacific (HBO, 2010)

Heirs of Saving Private Ryan (1998), the mini-series Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010) present the Second World War as is was experienced by the men of the 101st US Airborne Division in Europe (Band of Brothers) and by the US Marines against the Japanese (The Pacific). Designed and directed under similar terms, they both focus on the battlefield. Thus they do not make any reference to the diplomatic, political, economic and social issues raised by the conflict. But the similarities end there. If the paratroopers and the Marines are described as effective combatants, the former are portrayed in a more flattering light than the latter. Competent and rarely undermined in Band of Brothers, the hierarchy is regularly criticized in The Pacific. The relationships between combatants and civilians are much more highlighted in the second mini-series than in the first. Moreover, from one series to the other, the representations of the enemy, of the fighting and of its consequences change substantially. If Band of Brothers describes a rather formidable German soldier whose value points out that of the American paratroopers, The Pacific shows the racial dimension of the war and the terrible difficulties created by the other enemy that the environment was. Present on the European battlefields, violence, injury and death are more crudely staged on the Pacific theatre. Finally, the consequences of the conflict on the combatants and the complex coming out of war process are incomparably better evoked in The Pacific than in Band of Brothers. These variations are related to the differences between the sources on which the mini-series are based, to the nature of the warlike phenomenon that they present, to the changes in terms of historiographical and film contexts, as well as to the evolutions of the US and international political environments