Choice Review

The marriage of theory and political action groups is an intensely French phenomenon. In France, too, politicians often change parties as parties redefine themselves, but rare, indeed, are those persons who migrate across the political spectrum from Right to Left. Chief among that small group in the Third Republic was Georges Valois. In his youth, Valois was actually leftist, but in 1906, he became an ardent member, later a leader, of the royalist Action fran,caise. After the Great War, he founded France's first true fascist organization, Le Faisceau. Poincar'e's Cabinet of National Union defused the crisis that gave Valois's fascists popular support, and Le Faisceau died. After 1928, Valois moved to leftist groups. He ended as an antifascist, and as such, he died in Bergen-Belsen in January 1945. Using Valois's writings as the basis for this excellent, comprehensive intellectual biography, Douglas (Indiana Univ.) makes sense of Valois. Douglas argues that Valois was never an opportunist; rather, what gave unity to Valois's thought and career was his consistency as a utopian modernizer. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. B. Lowry; University of North Texas