------------ 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).
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Published by EH.Net (July 2005). All EH.Net reviews are archived at
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