H-France List Archives

• Message-Id: <199604252308.AAA25561@listserv.rl.ac.uk>
• Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:41:34 -0500
• From: Jim Farr <jrfarr@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
• Subject: H-Fr; *French Historical Studies*

A Note from the Editors of the journal *French Historical Studies*,
sponsored by the Society for French Historical Studies:

Beginning immediately, just before the publication of each issue of *FHS*
the editors (James R. Farr and John J. Contreni) will distribute to H-France
subscribers the Table of Contents and abstracts of articles of the upcoming
issue, and current subscription information.  Note that the journal will be
converting to a quarterly format, with the first quarterly issue (20:1)
appearing in January 1997.  Anticipated mailing dates are January, April,
July and October.




SUBSCRIPTIONS:  Libraries and institutions, $45; individuals, $25; students
and retired persons, $13.  Add $6 for postage outside the United States.
Single copies:  institutions,  $23; individuals, $13; back volumes, $45.
All orders should be directed to Journals Fulfillment, Duke University
Press, Box 90660, Durham NC  27708-0660.



TABLE OF CONTENTS,  Spring 1996 Issue, Volume 19.3

1. Forums

Population and the State in the Third Republic

Introduction
by Rachel G. Fuchs

"There are only good mothers...:  The Ideological Work of Women's Fertility
in France Before World War I"
by Joshua H. Cole

"Regulating Abortion and Birth Control:  Gender, Medicine, and Republican
Politics in France, 1870-1920"
by Jean Elisabeth Pedersen

"Gender, Anti-individualism, and Nationalism:  The Alliance Nationale and
the Pronatalist Backlash against the Femme Moderne, 1933-1940"
by Cheryl A. Koos

"Procreating France:  The Politics of Demography, 1919-1945"
by Andr=E9s Reggiani


Constructing Merovingian History

Introduction,
 by John J. Contreni

"Central Politics:  Kings, Their Allies and Opponents"
by Patrick J. Geary

"Vivent les M=E9rovingiens!"
by St=E9phane Lebecq

"The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751:  A Reply"
by Ian Wood


2.Articles

"Fathers of Power and Mothers of Authority:  Dhuoda and the Liber manualis"
by Martin A. Claussen

"The Pursuit of `Interests' in the French Revolution:  A Preliminary Survey"
by William Scott

3. Review Articles

 "Putting History Back into the Religious Wars:  A Reply to Mack P. Holt"
by Henry Heller
=20
"Religion, Historical Method, and Historical Forces:  A Rejoinder"
by Mack P. Holt

4. Bibliographies=20

"Recent Books and Dissertations on French History
compiled by Thomas J. Schaeper

"Recent Articles on French History"
compiled by Jean-Pierre V.M. H=E9rubel



ABSTRACTS

Forum:

Population and the State in the Third Republic

JOSHUA COLE, "`There are only good mothers...:'  The Ideological Work of
Women's Fertility in France Before World War I"

        In the decades before 1914, the declining birthrate became the focal point
of an intense controversy in France, embracing fundamental questions about
the relationship between a woman's reproductive capacity and her
participation in the public and political life of the nation.  Behind the
debate lay a tacit consensus among doctors, politicians, and publicists that
the problem to be solved in the "fertility crisis" involved finding the
proper social dimension of motherhood.  Demographers of the period
reinforced this socially over-determined connection between womanhood and
motherhood by defining the fertility index as a ratio between the number of
births and the total population of women of childbearing age.  This
technical innovation within the demographic literature narrowed the focus of
social and medical research into fertility patterns, and reinforced a
tendency by many social observers to assume that the declining birthrate
could be blamed on French women who had not fulfilled their maternal
obligations to society.  Paradoxically, identifying motherhood as the
natural destiny of all women could only increase the level of anxiety which
the French felt in the face of declining fertility, because those professing
this opinion would be forced to admit that "nature" was insufficiently
self-regulating with regard to women's fertility.  The neo-Malthusians
provided the only dissenting voice in this discussion arguing that a woman's
biological capacity had no necessary connection to the social order.

JEAN ELISABETH PEDERSEN, "Regulating Abortion and Birth Control:  Gender,
Medicine, and Republican Politics in France, 1870-1920"

        This article develops a feminist critique of Foucaldian analysis by
examining arguments over depopulation in France, beginning with debates at
professional societies and feminist congresses in the 1870s and the 1890s
and culminating with the parliamentary debates leading up to the law of 1920
which instituted penalties for those recommending abortion or birth control,
selling instruments which could induce abortion, or selling or distributing
any kind of contraception, with the notably gendered exception of condoms.
Republican feminists had argued that the government should address
depopulation by recognizing the social importance of motherhood and granting
women political rights to accompany their maternal responsibilities.
Republican doctors, demographers, and politicians disagreed over whether to
address the crisis by helping the fathers of large legitimate families or
whether, as the solidarists preferred, to help mothers directly, regardless
of whether their children were legitimate or not.  They also argued over
whether to focus on raising the birthrate, as demographers demanded, or
lowering infant mortality, the province of doctors.  Beginning in 1910, the
debates over the law of 1920 demonstrate links between the cultural
authority of medicine, the political importance of solidarism, and what I
call the dark side of republican motherhood, the restriction of women's
choices over whether and when to have children.  This analysis shows that
Foucault was right when he discussed "the Malthusian couple" as one focus
for the elaboration of disciplinary and political power, but it also shows
us that we need a feminist analysis to remind us of the ways in which this
worked differently for men and for women.

CHERYL A. KOOS, "Gender, Anti-individualism, and Nationalism: The Alliance
Nationale and the Backlash against the Femme Moderne, 1933-1940"

        This article explores the increased efforts of the pronatalists of the
Alliance Nationale pour l'accroissement de la population in the 1930s.  It
shows that the leaders of the Alliance Nationale began more forcefully
weaving the d=E9natalit=E9 issue into the larger contexts of social,=
 cultural,
and political debates concerning the roles of men and women, sexuality, and
national identity.  Echoing the rhetoric of Mussolini's and Hitler's
natalist policies and decrees, they developed natalist ideology around the
themes of nationalism and anti-individualism while attacking what they
considered to be the central threat to society, the independent femme
moderne.  The Alliance Nationale hence attempted to redefine gender roles as
a means of redefining the French nation.  The use of gender in natalist
rhetoric gave the natalist and familialist movements the sustained public
resonance that they had lacked previously and helped propel France
philosophically toward the National Revolution of the Vichy regime.

ANDR=C9S H. REGGIANI, "Procreating France:  The Politics of Demography,=
 1919-1945"
        In the years after World War I the French state lay down the political and
institutional foundations of modern demographic policies.  The prominent
role played in this process by the fears of population decline disseminated
by the pronatalists illustrates the peculiarities of the French case of
welfare state-making in which the concern with the birthrate and women's
fertility figured prominently at the origins of progressive social
legislation.  Moreover, this broad pronatalist consenses has deeply
influenced not only modern population policies but also, and more
significantly, the ideological foundations of French demography as a
scientific discipline.


Articles:

MARTIN A. CLAUSSEN, "Fathers of Power and Mothers of Authority:  Dhuoda and
the Liber manualis"

        Dhuoda, wife of Bernard, count of Septimania, wrote the Liber manualis in
the early 840s, when the Carolingian empire was undergoing a period of
fragmentation after the death of Louis the Pious.  The book, addressed to
her son William, who was living at the court of Charles the Bald, makes a
bold claim regarding maternal authority.  By engaging in a dialogue with a
series of normative texts, especially the Bible and the Rule of St.
Benedict, Dhuoda argues that the authority and respect that society accords
to powerful men=97fathers, abbots, and kings=97more properly belongs to=
 those
who act according to Christian precepts.  Finally, after she dismantles
ninth-century patriarchy, she proposes a new model of social relations based
on mutual aid and cooperation.

WILLIAM SCOTT, "The Pursuit of `Interests' in the French Revolution:  A
Preliminary Survey"
        An important revisionist interpretation argues that French political
culture, unlike British and American, has generally seen the expression of
individual or group interests as essentially negative and divisive, never
more so than during the French Revolution.  However few words were used so
frequently as "interest."  Far from crudely condemning "interest," the
Revolution saw sophisticated attempts to define the concept, in both
practical and theoretical terms.  The legitimisation, and advancement, of
some interests was undoubtedly at the expense of disqualifying others, but
interests flourished across a wide range of activities in the early years of
the Revolution=97in education, in the economy, in the sciences, printing and
publishing, etc. etc.  Arguments for the "democratisation" of interests were
eloquently put, as a means of making decisions, whether political, social or
economic (individual or collective) more rational and transparent, in the
cause of effectiveness but also for moral reasons of equality and
fraternity.  During the Terror, the necessities of war imposed a rhetoric of
national interest, but also fostered certain interests (of manufacturing
industry, for example).  Policies were directed at the satisfaction of
individual and group interests:  the "advantages" of the Revolution were
stressed, often in materialistic terms.  The democratisation of interests
was pressed forward, sometimes resulting in difficulties and contradictions,
but with some durable results.