From a recent poll of the French:
In an 18-month long Ipsos survey on “living together”, published in Le Journal de Dimanche, researchers interviewed French people from a variety of backgrounds on their views on race and religion.
Among the wider French population, 91 per cent said Jews were “very insular”, while just over half said they had “a lot of power”.
Over half of respondents said immigration “is not a source of enrichment”, while 56 per cent of French people said they would react “badly” if their daughter married a Muslim.
Given how such a relatively small nation as France has the 3rd largest Jewish population in the world, and has for much of its modern history, I have become quite interested in how the French Right has historically discussed the Jewish Question.
I’m currently reading The French Right: From De Maistre to Maurras (1971), edited by George Steiner, which contains original writings by:
- Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)
- Hippolyte Taine (1828-93)
- Edouard Drumont (1844-1917)
- George Sorel (1847-1922)
- Gustave le Bon (1841-1931)
- Maurice Barrès (1862-1923)
- Charles Maurras (1868-1952)
- Paul Claudel (1868-1955)
Unlike here in the U.S., where we have the 2nd largest Jewish population in the world, in France the ‘otherness’ of the Jew, the different sensibilities which Judaism and Jewish ethnocentrism introduced into French society, and the disproportionate influence Jews have exerted upon French culture and society, have long been topics of civil discussion in even polite society.
I am also reading How the French Think: An Affectionate Portrait of an Intellectual People (2015) by Sudhir Hazareesingh. While the author of this book is a Leftie, it’s nonetheless a good book to “read between the lines” of.
I’ll write in more detail on these books, as well as the Michel Houellebecq novels I read back in November, in future posts.
