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A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917-1945
David Berry
Book Code: GM2026
ISBN: 0-313-32026-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-32026-2
344 pages, tables
Greenwood Press
Publication: 9/30/2002
List Price: $102.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Series Title: Contributions to the Study of World History
Series Number: 97
Reviews:
  • Berry's is the first major account of French anarchism from 1917 to 1945. Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty.
    —Choice     May 2003
  • David Berry has written a well-researched and clearly argued analysis of French anarchist politics after the Russian Revolution, covering the decades marked by the revolutionary waves of 1918-20 and the Spanish Revolution of 1936....Berry's work is articulate and painstakingly clear, even when discussing the intricacies of inter-organizational debates after 1917: this is probably the finest libertarian analysis of anarchist organizations in this period....[a]n impressive work, attentive to detail, abundantly well-documented and clearly addressing some key dilemmas of anarchist organizations.
    —Anarchist Studies     2005
  • This is an extremely valuable resource. It provides detailed analyses of the strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, failings and lessons learned from vital movements with deep influence throughout society. Berry's history is meticulously researched and finely documented. It is a work that, while rooted in specific movements in a specific period in time speaks to contemporary and indeed ongoing concerns facing anarchists in the complexly and rapidly developing era of neo-liberal globalization.
    —Social Anarchism     .
  • Berry has done an amazing job....It is a doubtful that anarchists will ever again be an important force in French politics. Yet a study such as this helps us understand the development of working class ideology and organization as well as the dilemma of trying to maintain a free and independent position in a world of hegemonic capitalist power.
    —H-France Book Reviews     May 2003
Description: The first full-length English-language history of the French anarchist movement between the wars, this study analyzes the anarchists' responses to the Russian and Spanish revolutions and to the creation of an international communist movement. It details the dilemmas facing anarchism at a crucial moment in the movement's history, a time characterized by serious questioning of "traditional" anarchist theory and practice. On the basis of original research using the anarchist movement's press and other publications, as well as archival sources, Barry concludes that the French anarchist movement was not as isolated as has been previously suggested and that it was in fact probably stronger in the 1930s than it had been before or since. During this key era, leading militants within the movement sought to clarify anarchist theory regarding the nature of 20th-century revolutions, to challenge the rejection of organization, and to integrate anarchism more fully into the broader socialist and trade union movements. The movement was capable of organizing large and efficient campaigns and its analyses of developments on the left and in the trade union movement were often more prescient than those of the socialists and communists. Barry takes seriously the anarchists' attempts to come to terms with the challenges of revolution and to respond positively to them in a distinctly libertarian socialist way. Ultimately, they were only partially successful in such efforts, and this accounts in large part for their historic failure as a movement.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • The Context: Anarchism in France from the 1840s to 1917
  • The Aftermath of War and the Challenge of Bolshevism, 1917-1924
  • The New Dawn in the East
  • Sovietism as Council Anarchism
  • The Mainstream: From Revisionism to Reaffirmation of Anarchism
  • On the Margins: The Temps nouveaux Group and the Individualists
  • The Anarchists and the Revolutionary Syndicalist Movement
  • The Crisis of Anarchism, 1924-1934
  • Antifascism, the Spanish Revolution and War, 1934-1945
  • Popular Front or Revolutionary Front? Anarchist Antifascism
  • An Anarchist Front for Spain: The Anarcho-Syndicalist Committee
  • The Union Anarchiste and Anti-fascist Solidarity
  • Schism in the Anarchist Movement: The CGTSR-FAF
  • Volunteers in Spain
  • Anti-militarism, Resistance, and Collaboration
  • Conclusion: Mobilization, Constituency and Ideology
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index
LC Card Number: 2001054702
LCC Class: HX893
Dewey Class: 320
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