Soldiers as Police. The French and Prussian Armies and the Policing of Popular Protest, 1889-1914

Abstract

This book, a revised version of Anja Johansen's PhD thesis, is an impressive analysis of the contrasting ways in which Belle-Epoque France and Germany used the military in the policing of public protest. During the last years of the nineteenth century, and the early part of the twentieth, the authorities in Germany increasingly refrained from using troops against civilians, while in France the army was mobilized again and again against strikers and demonstrators. This is, on the surface, somewhat counterintuitive, given the contrast between the democratic, largely liberal, Third Republic and an increasingly bellicose Germany in which the military remained very influential in political decision-making. Johansen's book sets out to explain this conundrum. To do this, she marshals an impressive array of source materials. This is comparative history in a genuine sense. The author is not only entirely fluent in both languages, with a firm grasp of the socio-political frameworks of France and Germany, but is also entirely conversant with the archival systems of both countries. Sources from national, military and local archives are used extensively to great effect.