Beyond Left and Right: New Perspectives on the Politics of the Third Republic

Abstract

The articles in this issue all refl ect on the various ways in which political trends during the period of the Third Republic have been categorized by both historians of the period and the political actors themselves. Ranging in topic from political trends in the French military in the years after the Dreyfus Affair to the participation of women in the politics of the extreme Right, these pieces focus especially on the need to transcend categories of Left and Right in order to discuss more accurately the ways in which the political party system developed, in particular during the years between the world wars. Certain commonalities seem to have been shared regardless of political affi liation: Anti-Semitism was at times rampant on both the traditional and radical “Right” and among elements of the radical Left. Fascism and authoritarianism could be seen as deriving from both leftist and rightist groups. The debates among non-traditional political parties seem to have challenged the basic political categories that had been in use up to World War I. Defi nitions of masculinity and femininity—and the potential role that women’s suffrage might play in changing the political discourse—were subjects of concern across the political spectrum. Individuals were also transient in their alliances, with political leaders forming connections between seemingly disparate communities through their own participation in various offi cial and unoffi cial activist groups. Thus, the authors of these articles all agree that the traditional categories, and historical attempts to slot radical groups into them, must be reevaluated, transcended, and transformed into a model that recognizes these groups as a multivalent, multidimensional series of interlocking relationships, ones in which all the political and socio-political communities engaged. John Cerullo’s article, “The Aernoult-Rousset Affair: Military Justice on Trial in Belle Epoque France,” discusses the post-Dreyfusian military judiciary and how the fallout from that trial affected later judicial procedures for insubordination, especially in the colonial army. In particular, Cerullo focuses