General Maxime Weygand, 1867–1965. Fortune and Misfortune

This biography of a controversial figure in twentieth-century French history aims, in a way, to exonerate its subject. The author states as much directly, and his conclusion is unambiguous in this regard. In terms of style, this book is well written: the argument is very accessible and clearly structured and the notes are reduced to a reasonable length, which avoids readers having to constantly flip back and forth through the book. A few factual errors do not take anything away from the overall accuracy of the discussion, and the account of the essential role played by Weygand alongside Foch is particularly successful. The basic premise of the book does raise certain questions among its readers: it is useful, and often profitable, to revisit the biographies of certain figures who remembrance and historiography have seen fit to vilify over the decades. However, in this case, the exercise is unfortunately confined to hagiography. In presenting the tensions between General Weygand and the politicians of the Third Republic as the exclusive result of the split in French society caused by the 1789 Revolution, the author seems to blame left-wing politicians for his hero’s streak of bad luck. According to the author, these politicians systematically persecuted generals who were not kindly disposed to the Republic or Parliament and promoted large numbers of ‘political’ generals. This disregards General Weygand’s own writings, where he himself observed that ‘political’ promotions were a marginal phenomenon while he was in office from 1931 to 1935. It also ignores nineteenth-century French history and the role played by the army in events such as the coup d’état of 2 December, the Boulangist period and the Affaire Dreyfus.

Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Blame · Epistemology · HERO · Literature · Luck · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Skepticism · Style (visual arts) · Subject (documents) · Classics · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology