War and Faith: The Religious Imagination in France, 1914-1930 by Annette Becker (review)

BOOK REVIEWS649 only for Modernism but for virtually any other field that deals with historical texts. It belongs in every academic library. David G. Schultenover, SJ. Creighton University War and Faith: The Religious Imagination in France, 1914-1930. By Annette Becker. Translated from the French by Helen McPhail. [The Legacy of the Great War.] (Berg. Distributed by NewYork University Press. 1998. Pp. xiii, 191. $55.00.) In the "Introduction" to this noteworthy monograph, Annette Becker highlights the singularity of the French experience of World War I. At the outset of the war, unlike Great Britain, France was still feeling the sting of defeat in 1870 and the resulting loss of Alsace-Lorraine. At the end of the war, unlike the United States, France had suffered the full, long toll of the ordeal, not just its final offensive and victory. Moreover, France had lost a staggering 1,350,000 men, and the northeastern regions of the country lay largely in ruins. How could sense be made of such suffering and how could fitting memory be made of those who died for France? These are the two questions at the heart of this meticulously researched study. The response to the first of these two questions comprises more than half the book and involves an exhaustive examination of the conduct not only of the troops in the trenches but also of their loved ones back home. In both cases, there was an extraordinary religious renewal, which coincided with the equally extraordinary political response of the Union Sacrée. France was thus united, militarily on the front, politically in its government, and spiritually in its turn toward God. Becker convincingly argues that Catholicism was especially well suited to the spiritual yearnings of war-ravaged France because of its theology of resurrection through suffering and death. However, she also demonstrates the ecumenical character of the wartime religious renewal, experienced as well among French Protestants and Jews. In many respects, the second question concerning fitting memory of the war dead is more familiar terrain for historians. Here the author artfully examines the competing efforts of the Republic and of the Church to take control of the legacy of the fallen French soldiers. The burial of the Unknown Soldier of France beneath the Arch of Triumph and the dedication of the Basilica of SacréCoeur du Montmartre represent the fullest official memorials of the French war dead. However, it is the experience of ordinary French men and women,not the responses of the political or religious elites, which constitutes the focus of this study. Therein the author is strikingly original in her use of sources, which range from postcards from the front, to intercessory prayers and even superstitious practices. The result is a rare, fascinating analysis of religious conduct 650BOOK REVIEWS from below. Apart from price, this book would be an excellent model for historical methods courses in graduate programs. The translation by Helen McPhail is both accurate and graceful. The illustrations are judiciously selected. Unfortunately, the book does not contain a bibliography ,but full citations are included in the abundant footnotes. That omission is a small flaw in an otherwise superb study. Francis J. Murphy Boston College A Time ofSilence: Civil War and the Culture ofRepression in Franco's Spain, 1936-1945. By Michael Richards. [Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 314. $59.95.) This heavily annotated work (over one-third of the book is footnotes) by Michael Richards, a lecturer at the University of the West of England, "attempts to show how the Civil War was understood and absorbed . . . during and in the immediate aftermath of the conflict ... by exploring the interchanges between violence, ideas and economics during a period in which liberalism was seen as a foreign contagion that infected carriers of impurities, such as freemasons, regional nationalists, the working class, non-Catholics and women. . . ." Richards accomplishes this task by using every source he can to bolster his thesis and ignoring those that do not. The result is an uneven work that diminishes the validity of his original intention. Every bloodthirsty statement of a Nationalist supporter, every incident of persecution of the...