From “Boche” to German: Civilizing Nationalism in Interwar French Primary Education

Historians and education scholars have extensively examined the moderation of salient nationalist education during the interwar period. In the wake of the First World War, grassroots teachers' movements (Le Bars, 2005) and, to a lesser extent, initiatives from the League of Nations (Hofstetter & Riondet, 2018) gradually toned down the content of curricula, textbooks (Siegel, 2004), and daily lessons (Loubes, 2001). While the emerging pressures to respect national sensitivities—particularly those of recent wartime adversaries—are well-documented, there has been limited application of Eliasian concepts to understand how educators and pupils navigated what may be interpreted as a civilizing dynamic.

This communication argues that articulating concepts such as national habitus and civilizing process can provide insight into how nationalist rhetoric and attitudes were gradually codified into stricter forms of emotional management. First, building on an analysis of the French teachers' boycott campaign against "hateful" schoolbooks, I propose framing this movement as a “civilizing offensive” that led to increased constraints on expressing overt national pride. But to what extent did this offensive shape the socialization of children growing up in this era? To address this, I then examine a 1929 survey that asked a socially diverse sample of 350 French pupils the following question: "You hear of the Germans and the boches. Which of these two words do you prefer? Try to explain why." Through the findings of this survey, I highlight how children conveyed emotional concerns that extended beyond national boundaries.

In conclusion, I argue that the new codification of nationalism did not coincide with a post-national agenda, even in the most activist spaces. Rather, the encouraged identification remained racially limited to European nations, while the protection of national sensitivities paradoxically reinforced a socio-political order in which national affiliation never ceases to be a latent identity, a second nature.