This article explores the historical significance of Youth and Culture Houses in the
cultural reconstruction of post-war France in the wake of war and occupation. Integrating
the young into the cultural life of the nation was a project designed to unify the
French polity after the divisive years of the late Third Republic and Vichy.The Youth and
Culture Houses, a private initiative with government support, emphasized the cultural
development of the young within an inclusive, pluralist, secular, and democratic
environment premised on the notion that by fashioning the young culturally, the youth
of France would participate more fully and more effectively in the national community
as adult citizens. However, another element of the Youth and Culture Houses, and the
popular education movement more generally, was to homogenize the national
community, to produce a standard of cultural normality that would create a common
bond of Frenchness. |