Abstract

Several authors, both French and foreign, are trying to reopen the question of Fascism in France: according to them French historians minimized its size and influence in the interwar period. But they are failing to define the matter and to produce new and substantial historical evidence. They are focussing on colonel de La Rocque's Parti social français because of its mass of one million members and of its enigmatic nature; they draw a caricature, denying its political evolution towards the centre, which is pointed out by the study of the political context in the late Thirties. Their preconceived approach to Fascism moves them away from a more comprehensive history of French right-wing movements and of their cultures.