The War Guilt Problem and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1914-1944
Norman Ingram
Reviews and Awards
"Norman Ingram's The War Guilt Problem and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1914-1944 does what few historical monographs do. A very well-researched and written work of history, it raises fundamental questions about historical interpretation that will be of interest to a wider public." - Donald Reid, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, H-Diplo
"This finely written book makes an important contribution to the debates about the origins of the First World War in France, and to a lesser extent in Germany. It provides a detailed analysis of how pacifists grappled with the question of war guilt and continued to read contemporary developments through the lens of the First World War. The War Guilt Problem and the Ligue des droits de l'homme is a timely publication that provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the currency of civil society individuals (including historians) in public debates, especially with regard to their expertise in a world where some have loudly proclaimed the irrelevance of experts." - Charlotte Faucher, University of Manchester, H-Diplo
"This [book] places the war-guilt debate in an unexpected and original setting, one that Ingram is perfectly equipped to explore he dramatically changes the chronology of the organization's decline by clearly placing its beginning in 1914, when the Ligue supported the government, and its justification for war one of the strengths of this work is the important archival research that lies behind it." - Andrew Barros, Université du Québec à Montréal, H-Diplo
"Ingram's book is a tour de force: imaginatively researched in both French and German archives, forcefully argued and eloquently written. For historians, one of the more striking aspects of the book is the oft-expressed belief that sound historical research alone could ultimately provide an objective answer to the war-guilt question. The belief seems rather naïve now, but its persistence underscores the extent to which the inter-war period needs to be read forward from 1914-1918 and not backwards from 1939-1945." - Talbot Imlay, Université Laval, H-Diplo
"Norman Ingram has long been recognized as a distinguished scholar, well known for his mastery of the sources, elegant writing, and incisive analysis. In his recent book he does not disappoint [T]his fine book will be greeted with some indignation by some scholars of the topic in Paris. Everywhere else it will be greeted for what it is: an exceptionally fine piece of scholarship and an important contribution to our understanding of inter-war France." - William D. Irvine, York University, Toronto, H-Diplo
"The diversity of Ingram's nuanced argumentation demonstrates a stupendously wide reading which is expressed clearly in a metaphorically-rich style and with thesis-like increasing seriousness. That is admirable Now we know more about the entirely different but no less central meaning of the war guilt discussion in France and the politics surrounding it [This is] an outstandingly researched and stimulating book." - Prof. Dr. Jost Dülffer, HSozKult
