On the French Historiographical “Immunity” to Fascism*

Abstract

This article deals with the parochial interpretations of fascism and the authoritarian
right in France. These narrow readings of inter-war history – mostly promoted
by French academia – have been used either to exclude national phenomena
with overt fascist or anti-parliamentary features from this problematic
political family or to consider them as marginal fringes. The article shows that
foreign historians have challenged this specific historiography and assesses the
impact of these historical reconstructions on the categorisation of contemporary
extreme-right movements such as the Front National.