The text begins in 1870, with French suffering their overwhelming defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. A non-monarchical, democratic form of government was established, but was weak from its inception. A preview of Fascism of fascism called Boulangism very neary toppled before 1000 was even reached. The shameful Dreyfus affair is carefully chronicled, as are the numerous other French failings leading up to World War I.
Shirer covers this war masterfully, showing the French barely avoided catastrophe, with special emphasis being placed upon the immense casualties the French Army suffered. Luck and perhaps, Providence overcame mutinies, influenza, and occasional inept strategy, and the French and their allies won over the Central Powers The Versailles Treaty, ending the war, was heavily punitive, at French insistence, leading to German resentment and extremism, and, ultimately, to World War II. The French never saw it coming.
Now begins the most fascinating part of the book;, the time between the end of World War I and 1940. The French government was headed by a succession of Premiers who were either pathetically weak /oblivious to reality, or both. An excellent case in point is Eduoard Daladier, who was primarily responsible for the state of the vaunted French Army, and who took part in appeasing Hitler at Munich in 1938.
Although Daladier definitely should have known that Maurice Gamelin, the Generalissmo of the Army, was manifestly unfit for the job, he, as with Leon Blum, and numerous others, kept this vacillating coward, who would not accept the urgency of German actions, on the job. Shirer carefully shows how Gamelin, and many of his subordinates lived in the past, refusing to study new tactics dictated by fast moving masses of armor, refusing to accept the role of air power, refusing to accept intelligence reports showing a German invasion was coming and where, etc. The result was inevitable.
While Gamelin enjoyed dinners, and puttered in a post far back from the front, the French Army was decimated at Sedan, and in Flanders, and, five days into the war, Gamelin calmly accepted defeat. Time and again, a little planning could have avoided this outcome. Shirer's well-researched narrative leads the reader to wonder why Gamelin wasn't executed or imprisoned for dereliction of duty after the war.
Eventually, the French capitulated, and the sorry chapter of the Vichy Armistice began. After the Allies finally drove the Germans out, a different government was instituted, but the consequences of Third Republic's failures live with us yet.
If there is a hero in thie sorry batch of leaders after WW I, it is Paul Reynaud, a Churchillian figure, who became Premier far too late to alter what his predecessors had allowed to lapse. Reynaud wanted to fire Gamelin, but Daladier would not have it.
If this book shows anything, above all else, it shows that strong leadership is needed to preserve a democracy, and that the consequence of weakness and vacillation in the face of a determined enemy leads to appalling catstrophe. These lessons are relevant even in our own time.
The text is well-orgainized, and painfully explict in terms of the ebb of the Third Republic. I found Shirer to be very objective. The book is very long, but well worth the read. I recommend it very highly
