FRANCE—STILL DECENTRALIZED IN 1940.
FRANCE STILL DECENTRALIZED IN 1940. I have posted, for example here, about how long it took for France to overcome localism and establish a national identity. Julian Wright had a review in the Times Literary Supplement (November 13, 2009) of THE POLITICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN VICHY FRANCE by Shannon L. Fogg. The book is a study of the Limousin in the Vichy period and includes a study of the attitudes in the Limousin toward refugees from eastern France. From the review, I learned that “The Alsatians were dirty in the eyes of local peasants because they had toilets in their own homes.”
On the other hand the government was thoroughly centralized in Paris and the notion of equality meant that kids in the same grade throughout France (and even the colonies) were getting exactly the same material in class at the same time. That focus on Paris made a military coup by the generals possible in 1958 and facilitated DeGaulle’s return to power and ouster of the Fourth Republic