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The Fischer controversy, the war origins debate and France: a non-history

Keiger, JFV

Authors

JFV Keiger



Abstract

The controversy that followed publication in 1961 of Fritz Fischer’s Griff nach der Weltmacht was not restricted to West Germany. Even if the Fischer debate abroad did not acquire the vehemence it took on domestically, intellectually the effect was powerful. This article will demonstrate that France was potentially a most propitious terrain for the Fischer controversy to spread. Yet for a variety of reasons, largely to do with the nature of history practised in France in the 1950s and 1960s, it had remarkably little impact. The reasons for there being little reaction to the Fischer controversy also explain the state of the war origins debate in France fifty years on and why the war’s causes have not been seriously investigated by French historians for several decades.

Citation

Keiger, J. (2013). The Fischer controversy, the war origins debate and France: a non-history. Journal of Contemporary History, 48(2), 363-375. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009412472715

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Apr 15, 2013
Publication Date Apr 1, 2013
Deposit Date Jul 25, 2012
Publicly Available Date Jul 25, 2012
Journal Journal of Contemporary History
Print ISSN 0022-0094
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 2
Pages 363-375
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009412472715
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022009412472715

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