Richard Jobs’ recent book, Riding the New Wave, is described as a “fascinating study” in the July 6, 2007 issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Examining how the idea of youth was conceptualized and experienced during France’s Fourth Republic, Jobs argues that “youth, both as a concept and as a social group, [was] a primary mechanism in France’s postwar rejuvenation and its cultural reconstruction because the young, through their buoyant energy and dynamism, symbolically pointed the way to the future.”
World War II destroyed not only France’s physical
infrastructure, but its societal infrastructure as well. During the German
occupation, France had essentially been fighting a civil war – Nazi
collaborators against those fighting for independence. In Riding the New
Wave, Jobs describes the war years as “a terrible experience for France…
characterized as much by betrayal and treachery as they were by heroism and
sacrifice.”
Faced with the difficult task of reuniting and rebuilding their
society and weary from the long years of war, the French fixed on newness as a
possibility of hope. The youth came to be seen both as new and as a reason to
hope; “they represented the hope of a future unburdened by the devastation of
the recent past.” Moreover, youth was a common denominator for all factions of
society – everyone is young once – and therefore was accessible as a concept
around which to unite.
Riding the New Wave examines a much-overlooked period
of French history, providing insight into the years leading up to the radical
student protests of the late 1960s. Readers
will see that although France was dealing with a unique and difficult
situation, many of its ideas of youth mirror those we currently hold.
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