La Fabrique des garçons. L’Éducation des garçons de 1820 à aujourd’hui by Anne-Marie Sohn (review)

La Fabrique des garçons is an illustrated social history by Anne-Marie Sohn, professor emeritus in contemporary history at the École Normale Supérieure of Lyon specialized in the history of gender, private life and youth. Richly garnered with images, it is reminiscent of the history textbooks used in secondary school in France. Like them it presents historical analyses organized chronologically and by topic and supported by historical documents, often iconographic. The book draws on a wide variety of sources: ethnographic studies, private correspondence and photographs, advertising material, press articles and illustrations, literature, archives on public places such as schools, barracks, public spaces and areas for social gatherings. It is a good work of popularization, instructive and attractive. The text is as pleasant to read as the images are to look at.

The work is presented as the “exact counterpart” of La Fabrique des filles: L’Éducation des filles de Jules Ferry à la pilule [Manufacturing girls in France: educating girls from the time of Jules Ferry to the birth control pill] by Rebecca Rogers and Françoise Thébaud, published in 2010 by Textual and drawing on the same kinds of materials. In fact, the period covered by Sohn’s book is twice as long (1815 to our time), and the chronological sections – of which there are also three – are longer.

The book undertakes a synthetic overview of the social construction of masculinity in France during what is called the contemporary period, using both a diachronic and topic-centred approach. The process was revealed later than femininity, as the masculine continued to be confused with the universal, and men, despite their “monopoly over the spoken word”, were “not very talkative about their fate”. And yet, men are not born men any more than women are born women: they become men, and at the cost of a “long, often painful march”. Masculinity was and is constantly being questioned and challenged through tests sanctioned by “multiple judges” present in all spheres of society. And because masculinity depends on the social milieu and historical context in which it develops and is enacted, it too is multiple and changing. But the author emphasizes “dominant models”; that is, the model perceived to be the most legitimate in a given period. The three parts of the work correspond to three distinct periods; each discusses topics as diverse as the body, the family, sociability, leisure activities, school, work and politics. Here I shall just note the most salient components.

The first part focuses on the period from 1815 to 1879 and is entitled “From combative masculinity to the decline of same”. France at the time was mostly rural, and even children were put to work. Except during very early childhood, there was strict segregation of the sexes. Homo-sociability fostered “flamboyant, not to say combative, offensive”, masculinity. Violence was present in all aspects of everyday life, and in private and public life alike. Older boys brutalized younger children in the family at both school and work. In the political sphere, instability went together with the use of force – the popular imagination was still dominated by war and revolution. The French population tended to approve of conscription. Going before the draft board that examined conscripts’ bodies became a rite of passage that validated these young men’s masculinity: they and their families hoped they would be judged “fit for service,” which would also make it easier to start a family. With time, however, this model of masculinity declined, due to several factors: young boys began to attend public elementary school; the economy improved; democracy and individualism developed. Society began moving toward a “civilized” model of masculinity, one key feature of which was self-control.

The second part covers the period 1880 to 1950 and is entitled “Shaping well-behaved, educated citizens devoted to their Patrie [country, homeland]”. During this period...