French intellectuals in the Great War: new forms of engagement

A cultural history of the First World War has recently begun to be written alongside the more familiar military and political approaches, shedding light in particular on the attitude of intellectuals. While intellectuals from all spheres took active steps to protect the nation from danger, their participation in the war effort should not be reduced to a scholarly expression of jingoistic hysteria, but rather be read as the foregrounding of their agreement to abide by the national pact. Some intellectuals did, however, distance themselves from the war effort, which took a certain amount of courage.
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