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In the past century Western attitudes toward the soldier’s death have undergone a remarkable transformation. Widely accepted at the time of the First World War – when nearly ten million soldiers died in uniform – as a redemptive sacrifice on behalf of the nation, the soldier’s death is increasingly regarded as an unacceptable tragedy.
In Dying for France Ian Germani considers this transformation in the context of the history of France over the expanse of five centuries, from the Renaissance to the present. Blending military history with the history of culture and mentalities, Germani explores key episodes in the history of France’s wars to show how patriotic models of the soldier’s death eclipsed those inspired by the aristocratic code of honour, before themselves giving way to disillusioned representations. First-hand testimony of soldiers, surgeons, and others provides the basis for vivid descriptions of how a soldier encountered death, on and away from the battlefield. Works of art and print culture are used to analyze how soldiers’ deaths were represented to the public and to discern how popular attitudes evolved over time. Encompassing France’s major external conflicts and its civil wars, this study also considers the experiences of soldiers recruited from the French colonial empire.
Relating changes in the perception of military mortality to broader changes in society’s relationship with death, Dying for France highlights essential turning points in the rise and fall of the patriotic ideal of the soldier’s death.
“Dying for France engages creatively with an impressively wide range of literature dealing not simply with the history of warfare but with five centuries of French political, social, and cultural history. Thoughtful, thought-provoking, and often moving, the book expands beyond an ostensibly narrow theme, the death of the soldier, to reflect upon a far wider range of developments in the historical study of French conflict.” Joseph Clarke, Trinity College Dublin and author of Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France: Revolution and Remembrance, 1789–1799
“Ian Germani convincingly and compellingly links military developments to concepts of culture, memory, and an explanation of what soldiers fought for and why they died – this is an important and necessary addition to the study of military history.” David A. Messenger, University of South Alabama and author of War and Public Memory: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Europe
“This is an excellent work and will be appreciated by all historians and non-scholars due to Germani’s expansive research and clear and straightforward writing style.” Journal of Military History
“Readers will learn a great deal from the book about France’s wars, from the Renaissance and the French Wars of Religion in the 16th century through the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, WW I and WW II, and the wars of decolonization in the 20th century. Germani focuses not on battles, however, but on experience and representation. Recommended.” Choice
"It is always striking to be reminded about how many wars, let alone battles, France has been involved in, in its history. [Germani] leads his readers through times when soldiers were supposed to have died for honour (1500s), king and country (1700s), liberty (1790), the Emperor (1800) and lost causes (1870).” Medicine, Conflict, Survival
"Germani’s narrative is both compelling and relatively comprehensive. [His] study contains so much useful information and touches upon so many areas of modern French history, that it should inspire a wave of new scholarship that investigates, challenges, and expands upon his conclusions or treats them as a point of departure." H-France
“Dying for France is an illuminating, entertaining, and scholarly rigorous monograph that merits a close reading from scholars of modern war, memory, and modern France.” H-War
"Dying for France is a monumental study that surpasses all preceding works on the subject by its breath and the depth of its analysis." European Review of History
“Ian Germani does not shy away from methodological challenges in this encyclopedic and highly informative book. The scope of the book is impressive, as are an array of insights into particular texts.” Journal of Modern History
“There is ... depth, diversity, nuance and thus great value in Germani’s text. This, in combination with its thoughtful mixture of military, social and cultural histories, leaves it well placed to become a major scholarly reference point.” Cultural and Social History