Eugen Weber (1925–2007)

The closing of a century is a time of change in history and culture. This was never more true than at the end of the nineteenth century; the era now known as the "fin de siecle". Eugen Weber focuses on France in this fine history of that era. It is a history organized topically rather than chronologically. Thus Weber offers discussion of the lives of people, their way of living and the impact of technological changes. The change in political and educational patterns highlight how the old show more morphs into the new even in this area. Anyone interested in the arts is treated to a discussion of decadence which opens the book. There is the naturalism of writers like Zola, but also the neurosis of the age with hints of Freud and Nietzsche. Even sports is not neglected in this eclectic and always fascinating picture of the end of a century. show less

The behavior of France in World War II always perplexed me. It appeared the French simply said, "C'est la vie", and all but invited the Germans to walk right on in without much of a fight. It has forever tainted France, to the point where I have travelled worldwide and have heard jokes about the lack of resolve for Frenchmen.

Yet, for almost 120 years, France was a mighty war power. Napoleon set in bootprints the path his countrymen would take, and it carried into the mid-nineteenth century show more where France was considered the greatest military power on the continent (not the Brits, who focused on industry and empire consolidation). Mon dieu, what happened?

The Crimean War happened. The Franco-Prussian War happened. World War I happened. By the time the 1930s came around, France had enough of war and the senseless slaughter of seemingly every other generation of young men. While this doesn't excuse their limp response to Hitler, it does explain the background leading to the beginning of WWII.

Eugen Weber does a good job of understanding that the basic reader will be opening the book with the same question I had, and he takes the reader briskly through history and the results. Still, the results leave one saddened...Great Britain also had the disastrous Crimean War and the Boer War, plus the generation lost in the Great War. Yet, the Brits never gave up, even with the bombing that cost them more civilian lives than the French endured from the Nazis.

So, perhaps, in the end, one thinks that maybe the backbone of a nation is its leaders...England had Churchill and the good fortune to have a King whose brother might have brought the nation to surrender. France had destroyed its monarchy long ago and seemingly any sense of leadership. Maybe it's easy for me to sit back and decide what history should have been without having experienced the trauma preceding the fact. Still, it doesn't excuse the Vichy Regime and the handing over of France's Jewish population.

For shame, my father's people, for shame.

Book Season = Spring (April in Paris might help) show less

I tried to read this a couple of times but just couldn't get past the first third. There's simply much too much information crammed into such a short book that it leaves no room for interpretation or for a coherent narrative to emerge. It might serve scholars as a timeline of apocalyptic-inspired events, but it's just a trudge to a lay reader like me.

Eugen Weber appropriately begins his book on apocalypses with a discussion of chronologies and the fin de siecle for, as he discusses, time is a social construct and the nature of fin de siecles is dependent upon this. The differing perspectives of time and the way we view historical events is the jumping off point for his discussion of the views and beliefs of people over the years regarding the end times. It is the book of Revelation and the "dark and bloody" apocaplypse that is described show more there that captured my imagination and was a starting point for a tour through history of the varying adpatations and expectations of humans regarding Apocalypses over the centuries. These views continue into our own violent and bloody century (both current and immediately preceding) where there are groups like the "Millenium Watch Institute" that keeps "an eye out for signs of the Coming" (p 209). Whether considered as "a growth industry" or a phenomenon of one of many belief systems, Armageddon has been a concept that has captured the imagination of humans for ages. Eugen Weber shares some insights on the history of this and other apocalyptic ideas in this fascinating and informative book. show less