The Croix de Feu and Fascism: a Foreign Thesis Obstinately Maintained

Abstract

Since this collection has the great merit of bringing together the results of recent research on the far right by French, French-speaking and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ historians, it is perhaps appropriate to begin by reflecting upon the alleged gap between them regarding the question of indigenous fascism in the late Third Republic. In fact, once we look beyond the very small number of historians actively engaged in the debate about the Croix de Feu, the national interpretative divide is less obvious. French academics such as Henri Dubief, Michel Margairaz and, most penetratingly, Michel Dobry have questioned the Remond interpretation.2 Even among those closer to Remond there are serious disagreements between those who regard the Croix de Feu/PSF as an anticipation of Gaullism and those who see it as representing an antidemocratic counter-revolutionary tradition.3 Neither are the views of Anglo-American historians universally opposed to the Remond thesis. In the late 1930s D. W. Brogan anticipated Remond’s view that French ‘fascism’ was a fiction intended to provide a common enemy for the parties of the left.4 In fact, for many decades, the Remond thesis held sway among British historians in general.5 What is more, the American Robert Soucy was until recently relatively reluctant to commit himself on the subject of the Croix de Feu.6