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Date:
Fri Mar 31 17:18:48 2006
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------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------  
Published by EH.NET (July 2005)  
  
Jean-Pierre Dormois, _The French Economy in the Twentieth Century_.   
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xviii + 151 pp. $43   
(hardback), 0-521-66092-0; $14.99 (paperback), ISBN: 0-521-66787-9.  
  
Reviewed for EH.NET by Marc Flandreau, Department of Economics,   
Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris  
  
  
As a French economic historian, I get now and then requests from   
colleagues overseas asking for an English language crash course in   
twentieth century French economic history. So far, I was never able   
to provide a single reference, and thus tried to get a better sense   
of what they were specifically after (sub-period? topic?) before   
providing, well, several references, and several of them in French.   
This little book by Jean-Pierre Dormois (a leading French historian   
known for his remarkable works on productivity comparisons and the   
impact of trade policies and technical progress in the late   
nineteenth century) is therefore most welcome: it fills a gap and   
provides an excellent starting point for whoever is interested by the   
achievements of the French economy during the last century.  
  
Being part of Cambridge's New Studies in Economic and Social History,   
_The French Economy in the Twentieth Century_ has been formatted to   
match the series style: it is both concise (151 pages: you can digest   
it in, say, one Eurostar trip between London and Paris) and precise   
(an index, a bibliography, a glossary and a "national portrait   
gallery" of famous Frenchmen and women in the twentieth century). But   
it is also very readable. In the preface, Dormois confesses a soft   
spot for the British magazine _The Economist_, acknowledging that it   
helped him to "write economic English." Dormois has undoubtedly been   
an excellent student, possibly surpassing his master: I found his   
book not only informative and clearly argued (a quality shared by   
_The Economist_), but also often quite fun to read (a quality   
sometimes lacking in _The Economist_). Most importantly, Dormois   
knows much more about France, French history and the French economy   
than the famous British magazine.  
  
The organization of the book is innovative. Rather than going over   
the classic chronology of the twentieth century (Belle Epoque, World   
War I, Entre deux Guerres, World War II, Fourth Republic, Fifth   
Republic), Dormois has chosen an analytic approach covering a series   
of themes. This is especially useful for readers interested in a   
specific topic (say France's industrial policy) who will therefore   
make further savings. The volume as a result is organized into eight   
chapters of about fifteen pages each: Chapter 1, "The End of French   
Exceptionalism," sets the stage: was France different and has it   
stopped being so? Chapter 2, "French Economic Performance in   
Historical Perspective," provides numbers and benchmarks on France's   
macroeconomic achievements. Chapter 3, "France and the Wider World,"   
tells the fascinating story of the radical transformation of the   
French economy from a closed to an open economy. Chapter 4, "The   
Changing Face of Colbertism," provides a broad brush picture of the   
changing patterns of government intervention in economic activity.   
Chapter 5, "The Institutions of French Capitalism," gives a   
perspective on such issues as corporatism and the changing   
organization of the financial system. Chapter 6, "Labour: The French   
at Work," describes the evolution of the labor market in order to   
give a perspective on the current unemployment problem. Chapter 7,   
"Plough and Pasture: Lifeblood or Drain?" discusses the importance of   
agricultural policy across the century. And finally, chapter 8,   
"Industrialization, De-industrialization, and   
Post-industrialization," provides some perspectives on the impact on   
the French economy of the "service revolution," with extensions into   
speculations for the future.  
  
The main value of this book is that, while being essentially a   
textbook, Dormois' volume is at the same time an essay. Dormois, like   
_The Economist_, is a critic of French economic policy (its taste for   
dirigisme, its inability to rely on competition, its illiteracy in   
"orthodox" economics). The book, as a result, gets a pamphlet-like   
aspect, which makes its reading exciting. Some may complain that   
Dormois' views lead him to make statements that are not always   
warranted: his attempt to relate France's fertility in the nineteenth   
century with limited growth performance, for instance, is an example.   
Or again, his portrait of a consistently protectionist France   
conflicts somewhat with his description of a vibrant economy that   
internationalized so rapidly in the past thirty years. Isn't it   
possible to see in France's recent anti-globalization moves the   
backlash against the deep transformations of the past decades, rather   
than the mere continuation of an established pattern? Readers will   
find other causes of concern, in proportion of their own biases   
towards state intervention. Which is another way to say that   
subscribers of _The Economist_ will find themselves at home in   
Dormois' short and provocative history.  
  
  
Marc Flandreau is the author of _The Glitter of Gold: France,   
Bimetallism, and the Emergence of the International Gold Standard,   
1848-1873_ (Oxford University Press, 2004).  
  
Copyright (c) 2005 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be   
copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to   
the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the   
EH.Net Administrator ([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513-529-2229).   
Published by EH.Net (July 2005). All EH.Net reviews are archived at   
http://www.eh.net/BookReview.  
  
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