Generals and Politicians

Generals & Politicians: Conflict Between France’s High Command, Parliament and Government, 1914–1918 by Jere Clemens King offers a penetrating study of how France’s democratic institutions clashed and cooperated with military command during the First World War. Drawing on rich archival sources, King traces how the Republic balanced Clausewitz’s dictum of policy’s primacy with the realities of battlefield crises. From the “military dictatorship” of 1914 through the Verdun battles and into the Clemenceau years, the book examines episodes such as the Sarrail affair, parliamentary inspections, and the delicate interplay of generals like Joffre, Pétain, and Foch with shifting cabinets.

More than a narrative of military operations, this work analyzes the political and institutional frictions that defined France’s war effort. It shows how the Third Republic’s parliament and ministries sought to supervise, restrain, or empower the high command, revealing both tensions and accommodations. By situating military decisions within the fabric of democratic politics, *Generals & Politicians* illuminates not only the French experience of 1914–1918 but also enduring questions about civil–military relations in modern industrial democracies.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1951.