“The worst winds of revolt”: connections between civilian and military dissidence during the French Crisis of 1917

Abstract

This thesis, rooted in the fields of social, cultural, and military history, examines connections and correlations between civilian and military dissidence during the French Crisis of 1917. Previous studies on the Crisis have isolated moments of unrest on the home-front from those occurring on the Western Front, which has in turn created a significant gap in historiography and in popular memory. This research seeks to complicate the narrative of the Crisis by connecting mutinies in the French Army on the Western Front to labour actions at home, arguing that both movements are key to a better understanding of civil-military relations in France during the Great War. This thesis explores their shared motivations and further analyses the ways in which soldiers and civilians shaped, influenced, and legitimized each other’s dissent in an effort to reclaim their political voice from their war-time state.