Fathers, Families, and the State in France, 1914-1945

by Kristen Stromberg Childers

Overview

The state's policy with regard to fathers and fatherhood had a great impact on concepts of citizenship and gender in France in the era of the two World Wars. Drawing on new material that has only recently become available from the archives of the Vichy regime, Kristen Stromberg Childers analyzes the ways fathers were promoted as saviors of the nation after France's humiliating defeat by the Germans in June 1940. Childers argues that concern for the family and for the status of fathers in modern France was not merely a response to falling birthrates and German aggression, but was fundamental to the very notion of citizenship and political participation.

The debate on men as gendered beings, Childers demonstrates, is central to the political, social, and cultural history of France in the modern age. The father figure became a focus as participants from all classes and across the political spectrum debated what was wrong with the French family and what policies were needed to remedy the problem. Childers examines how these policies were implemented, what they reveal about the development of the welfare state in France, and how they help explain the importance of Vichy in twentieth-century French history. Twenty-eight illustrations, including fifteen photographs, many never previously published, complement her argument.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801441226
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	10/24/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kristen Stromberg Childers is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

Sarah Fishman

While historians of modern France stress the critical importance of family and population, few have considered where and how fathers fit into all of this. This original, well-researched, engagingly written, and thought-provoking book explores the evolution of the legal position of fathers, then relates fatherhood to the origins of the welfare state and growing anxieties in the mid-nineteenth century about depopulation and family breakdown.

Edward Berenson

Fathers, Families, and the State in France is a subtle, sophisticated gender history that traces the way the French state sought to define and redefine the meaning of fatherhood in the twentieth century. As Kristen Stromberg Childers reveals, a succession of paternalist regimes confronted the impossible challenge of setting the standards of fatherhood without undermining the authority of individual fathers. This is one of the finest histories of men and masculinity we have.

Editorial Reviews

Kristen Stromberg Childers complements existing work on the significance of gender in the creation and elaboration of welfare states by turning readers' attention from women to men, from mothers to fathers, and from argument over the meaning of maternity to arguments over the meaning of paternity.... Besides interesting modern French historians, the book should be useful for comparative historians of welfare, of war and peace, and of the reality and representation of men's and women's lives under fascist, authoritarian, or totalitarian regimes.

Jean Elisabeth Pedersenn Historical Review

Kristen Stromberg Childers complements existing work on the significance of gender in the creation and elaboration of welfare states by turning readers' attention from women to men, from mothers to fathers, and from argument over the meaning of maternity to arguments over the meaning of paternity.... Besides interesting modern French historians, the book should be useful for comparative historians of welfare, of war and peace, and of the reality and representation of men's and women's lives under fascist, authoritarian, or totalitarian regimes.

American Historical Review - Jean Elisabeth Pedersen

"While historians of modern France stress the critical importance of family and population, few have considered where and how fathers fit into all of this. This original, well-researched, engagingly written, and thought-provoking book explores the evolution of the legal position of fathers, then relates fatherhood to the origins of the welfare state and growing anxieties in the mid-nineteenth century about depopulation and family breakdown."

Sarah Fishman

"Fathers, Families, and the State in France is a subtle, sophisticated gender history that traces the way the French state sought to define and redefine the meaning of fatherhood in the twentieth century. As Kristen Stromberg Childers reveals, a succession of paternalist regimes confronted the impossible challenge of setting the standards of fatherhood without undermining the authority of individual fathers. This is one of the finest histories of men and masculinity we have."

Edward Berenson

"Kristen Stromberg Childers complements existing work on the significance of gender in the creation and elaboration of welfare states by turning readers' attention from women to men, from mothers to fathers, and from argument over the meaning of maternity to arguments over the meaning of paternity. . . . Besides interesting modern French historians, the book should be useful for comparative historians of welfare, of war and peace, and of the reality and representation of men's and women's lives under fascist, authoritarian, or totalitarian regimes."—Jean Elisabeth Pedersen, University of Rochester, American Historical Review, February 2005

"Fathers, Families, and the State in France is a subtle, sophisticated gender history that traces the way the French state sought to define and redefine the meaning of fatherhood in the twentieth century. As Kristen Stromberg Childers reveals, a succession of paternalist regimes confronted the impossible challenge of setting the standards of fatherhood without undermining the authority of individual fathers. This is one of the finest histories of men and masculinity we have"—Edward Berenson, Director, Institute of French Studies, New York University

"While historians of modern France stress the critical importance of family and population, few have considered where and how fathers fit into all of this. This original, well-researched, engagingly written, and thought-provoking book explores the evolution of the legal position of fathers, then relates fatherhood to the origins of the welfare state and growing anxieties in the mid-nineteenth century about depopulation and family breakdown."—Sarah Fishman, University of Houston

From the Publisher