Shades of Indignation: Political Scandals in France, Past and Present

Paul Jankowski

Published by Berghahn Books 2007

Shades of Indignation

Political Scandals in France, Past and Present

Paul Jankowski

Volume 8 in the series Berghahn Monographs in French Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857455383

Overview
Contents

About this book

At the end of the twentieth century France found itself in the midst of another scandalous fin de siècle, awash with rumors and revelations of wrongdoing in high places. As the millennium expired, the Republic’s servants, some sitting, others retired, received much condemnation, whether welcomed or resented. When taken together, surely les affaires now approximate in political significance (if not in noise or invective) those of the Dreyfus or Panama scandals a century ago? Yet the author argues this is not so. Today, treason has vanished and is slowly giving way to a transgression different in kind, but equivalent in gravamen: the crime against humanity. Corruption is far from disappearing, yet now it inspires resignation rather than indignation - and as such, it has lost its power to scandalize. Jankowski claims that such transformations tell a tale. The state that once aspired to pre-eminence as the sole magnet of loyalty, touchstone of probity, and guarantor of right, has yielded significant ground to the individual who is now more likely to elevate his own dignity and cry scandal on his own behalf. [In these times,] Individualism is de-politicizing the group and [ultimately] diluting the mystique of France, the nation-state par excellence.

Author / Editor information

Currently Ray Ginger Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Brandeis University, Paul Jankowski is the author of Communism and Collaboration. Simon Sabiani and Politics in Marseille, 1919-1944 and of Stavisky. A Confidence Man in the Republic of Virtue. He was educated in Geneva, New York, and Balliol College, Oxford.

Reviews

“[the author]effectively demonstrates that the changing perception of scandal in France derives from [the] fundamental shift in the relationship of the state to its citizen.” · American Historical Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 TREASON Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Chapter 2 CORRUPTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
Chapter 3 INJUSTICE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
CONCLUSION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
APPENDIX OF THE PRINCIPAL SCANDALS, INCIDENTS, AND AFFAIRS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 236
Keywords: History (General)

eBook

Published: December 1, 2007
ISBN: 9780857455383