Memory at the front
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received little serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role during the Occupation. Le 14 juillet was the occasion when Vichy, the collaborationists and the Resistance each chose to glorify, qualify or condemn the Revolution. Their respective selected symbols, words, and ceremonies projected narratives of the proper French past and visions for the postwar future that competed for legitimacy. Each year, this anniversary also served to gauge the French public’s response to the conflicting manipulations of the Revolution’s memory, thereby becoming a vital testing ground for the political direction of the nation. Ultimately, the evolution of the holiday’s meaning during the Occupation period had consequences that reached well into the post-war era.
Contested Symbols: Vichy France and the Legacy of the French Revolution
This paper examines how Vichy, the authoritarian government in France throughout most of the Second World War, reckoned with the legacy of the French Revolution. I investigate this relationship through the regime’s treatment of four revolutionary symbols: the figure Marianne, the anthem “La Marseillaise,” the national holiday of Bastille Day, and the slogan of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. Because these symbols were deeply embedded in French social and political life, I argue that Vichy could neither fully reject nor embrace them; instead, it pursued a middle ground by twisting the symbols’ meanings and introducing alternatives in line with the traditionalism and ethnocentrism of its National Revolution. In doing so, Vichy attempted to replace the French Republic and the revolutionary values that it stood for with its own vision of the French past, present, and future.
Facies and microfacies of slope deposits
Abstract This paper reviews the facies and microfacies of the main types of slope deposits. Lamination and sorting, when preserved, are good evidence for overland flow. Features due to deformation (folds, boudins, coatings and tails due to the rotation of clasts) are associated with the early stages of deformation in earth slides. Other mass-movements such as debris flows, rock avalanches, earth flows, and to a certain extent, dry grain flows may be characterised by similar microscopic facies, typically a poorly sorted, porphyric material. Porosity gives evidence for both liquefaction (debris flows) and frost-induced mass-movement (solifluction). However, this criterion is thought to be irrelevant for fossil deposits owing to the rapidity and scale of post-depositional changes (wetting and drying, freezing and thawing, bioturbation). At present, only a detailed analysis of both the macro- and micromorphological characteristics of the deposits allows an accurate identification of past slope dynamics.