Prehistory and Palaeontology in France, 1900–40

Abstract

In many fields of scientific and intellectual activity, French scholars and institutions had built up a leading, even dominant, position over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In disciplines such as medicine, anthropology, mathematics and physics, French scientists were often at the forefront of developments and in key positions within international networks.1 However, in the late nineteenth century, and particularly across the twentieth, this ascendant position often seemed to unravel, particularly under competition from larger and better-funded institutions in other countries — first through the prominence of German science, but then the even greater rise of well-funded institutions in the United States. This was exacerbated by shocks to French society and its global position following the world wars, and the general decline of French as the international language of scholarship and intellectual endeavour in favour of English. In this narrative, the interwar period occupies a potentially uneasy position, with French predominance retained in many areas, but with a growing sense that its position was threatened.