Allan Mitchell - The Divided Path: The German Influence on Social Reform in France After 1870

This book completes a trilogy that has occupied me for the better part of two decades. When I began the first volume, of course, I already had some notion of the third and was certain that it would treat the social question. Yet I cannot now claim much clairvoyance about the actual contents. One needs only to scan the bibliography of scholarly publications to see how much progress has occurred in social history during recent years: over half of the titles listed have appeared since 1980. Before then, that is, many aspects of this study were literally inconceivable. There is thus good reason for me to be grateful to many colleagues who have labored mightily in the archives and whose findings have been indispensable for my own work. I hope that they, in turn, will view with some indulgence my efforts to gain footing in their areas of specialization.

A preface is hardly the place for true confessions, but the reader should realize that I was born in the United States as a son of immigrant parents (from Scotland) and as an offspring of the Depression and the New Deal. These circumstances help to explain a certain passion that I have brought to my research and writing. Not only do I hold that a society is obligated to offer equality of opportunity to citizens of every origin; I am also persuaded that politics should serve to promote that ideal, however unattainable it may be in practice. I therefore believe in the necessity of state intervention to deal with social problems. It is this premise, and not a preference for Germany over France, that has colored my judgment about events in Europe. Surely no American in my lifetime has any reason to observe with smugness the difficulties of late nineteenth-century France. Insofar as social policy is concerned, the parallels between the French republic then and the American republic now are impossible to ignore. It affords little comfort to conclude that, a full century later, the United States has barely attained the level of the early Third Republic in crucial matters of public health and welfare.

With respect to scholarship, fortunately, the situation is less bleak, to which I can testify as the recipient of senior research grants from the Fulbright Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their assistance made possible two long periods of investigation in France. For shorter research trips to Germany I am also indebted to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and to the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftnng. Two generous colleagues were instrumental in arranging pleasant surroundings for reflection and discussion: Jrgen Kocka at the Zentrum fr Interdisziplinre Forschung in Bielefeld and Stefi Jersch-Wenzel at the Historische Kommission zu Berlin.

In such an extensive undertaking as this, the expert advice of others has been essential. For their combination of personal encouragement and professional criticism, I want to thank Marilyn Boxer, Patrick Fridenson, Peter Hennock, Martha Hildreth, Bennetta JulesRosette, Annemarie Kleinert-Ludwig, Gabriel Motzkin, Christoph Sachsse, Johanna Schmid, and Hannes Siegrist. Likewise, the conservateur of the Muse Social in Paris, Mme. Colette Chambelland, was an amiable source of bibliographical information. No less important in that regard was the help offered by the staff of the Assistance Publique de Paris in the Service de la Documentation et des Archives at 7 rue des Minimes, a good address for every scholar of French social history.

In the preparation of the manuscript I received aid from Donna Andrews, who introduced me to the mysteries of word processing and provided a prompt service de dpannage. Helene Carol Brown was a peerless research assistant, who tracked down a thousand details and saved me from unspeakable embarrassments. Above all, I owe gratitude to Lewis Bateman, executive editor of the University of North Carolina Press, who believed in this project from the beginning and who has supported it throughout.

Finally, I want to mention the late Yigal Shiloh. During one long, hot summer in Jerusalem he taught me the difference between the nineteenth century B.C. and A.D. Then, far too soon, he was cut down. He never finished his book, but to him this one is gratefully dedicated.

La Jolla, California
October 1990