Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Anglo-French Defence Relations Between the Wars (review)

2003; Society for Military History; Volume: 67; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jmh.2003.0104

1543-7795

John C. Cairns,

European Political History Analysis

The theme of Anglo-French relations never ceases to fascinate English-speaking scholars. It appears to be of somewhat less interest to the French. A possible explanation of the phenomenon follows from three facts: (1) an innate security the French feel about their place in Europe; (2) the perpetual British inquiry into their relationship to Europe; and (3) the continuing strong British and North American attraction to the rich depositories of diplomatic and military papers for study of Franco-British encounters in the twentieth century. By and large, French academics do not haunt British (or American) archives in the manner of the "Anglo-Saxons" thronging French archives. Not surprisingly, studies in this field were for many years principally drawn (partly for lack of archival access in France) from British sources. Very often, they reflected a largely British angle of vision. This limitation [End Page 591] no longer stands, though elements of the Anglocentric approach persist and are illustrated, here and there, even in this excellent book.