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The European Legacy
Toward New Paradigms
Volume 6, 2001 - Issue 3
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Original Articles

The Ambiguities of the Nouvelle Droite, 1968-1999

Pages 333-351 | Published online: 01 Jul 2010

References

  • Pauwels , Louis . 1979 . France Soir , 29 March According to York University professor Harvey Simmons, Louis Pauwels coined the term "New Right" in 1979, near the height of the ND's mass media exposure in France. Pauwels sought to distinguish between the Old and New Right, and to rid the Right of its "irrational" anti-Semitism as well as other anti-modern stances. Personal conversation with the author in September 1991. Writing in France-Soir in 1979, Pauwels said the following: "My positions are those of what we can call the 'new right' and have nothing to do with the bourgeois, conservative, and reactionary right."
  • Duranton-Crabol . Visages de la Nouvelle droite 251 – 8 . For a more thorough list of the founding members and figures connected to the ND, GRECE, and its major academic journals, see
  • Duranton-Crabol . Visages de la Nouvelle droite 243 In addition, another political scientist named Michel Kretzschmar has argued that the "hot summer" of 1979 marked the acceptance of the ND within the larger cultural and intellectual landscape and calculated that the press campaign surrounding the ND generated a whopping 2267 articles between 1979 and December 1984
  • Kretzschmar , Michel . 1985 . La campagne de presse autour de la Nouvelle droite , 5 Paris : Institut d'études politiques .
  • Duranton-Crabol . Visages de la Nouvelle droite 186 – 9 .
  • Sternhell , Ze'ev . 1986 . Neither Right Nor Left , Berkeley , CA : University of California Press . Inter-war French thinkers such as the philosopher Georges Sorel tended to oscillate between an aristocratic socialism and the ultra-nationalist royalism of the Action française. Moreover, they were equally revered by Mussolini's Fascists and Lenin's Bolsheviks. Sorel was idolized by both radical camps for his belief that revolutionary violence and myths could seize the popular imagination of the masses, thus leading to a destruction of the hated liberal system. Also, the works of the Israeli historian Ze'ev Sternhell argue that fascism was an ideological synthesis of right-wing ultra-nationalist positions and a constant left-wing revisionism of Marxism
  • del Balye , J.-L. Loubet . 1970 . Les NonConformistes des annees , Vol. 30 , Paris : Seuil . For additional material on the "non-conformist?' intellectuals like Thierry Maulnier and others
  • Gottfried , Paul . 1990 . "Preface," ” . In Against Democracy and Equality: The European New Right , Edited by: Sunk , Tomislav . x New York : Peter Lang .
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1979 . Les idées a l'endroit , 145 – 94 . Paris : Libres-Hallier .
  • Taguieff . "An Interview with Pierre-André Taguieff," ” . 164
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1983 . Europe, Tiers monde, même combat , Paris : R. Laffont . In this text, De Benoist calls for a geopolitical and "spiritual" alliance between Europe and the Third Worid against the alleged global designs of American materialism
  • Simmons . The French National Front 211 Jean-Marie Domenach, quoted in
  • Rémond , René . 1982 . Les droites en France , 283 – 9 . Paris : Aubier .
  • Griffin . Fascism 351 – 4 .
  • Lee's , Martin . The Beast Reawakens 168 – 83 . This term is borrowed from
  • Baudrillard , Jean . 1996 . The Perfect Crime , 136 London : Verso . Jean Baudrillard writes that the substance of Le Pen's Front National ideas have "everywhere filtered into the political class in the form of national opt-outs, cross-party unity, Euronationalist instincts, and protectionism." See
  • Messina , Anthony . 1988 . "The Rise of Anti-Immigrant Illiberalism," . West European Politics , 11 April Anthony Messina has shown how political parties of all stripes have colluded in the revival of an anti-immigrant ethic throughout Europe
  • Griffin . "Pus ça change!," ” . 24
  • Adler , Frank . 1999 . "Response to a Mendacious Manifesto," . Telos , 114 Winter : 156 – 8 . See the ND's "Europeans Want Peace!" manifesto in the International Committee to "Stop the War," [email protected]. It is reprinted within Telos (114) (Winter 1999): 155-6. For a competent reaction to the ND anti-war manifesto
  • Giddens , Anthony . 1994 . Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics , 8 – 9 . Stanford , CA : Stanford University Press .
  • Rollet , Maurice . "Nous étions douze," . 139 le Mai 68 de la nouvelle droite
  • Quattrocchi , Angelo and Nairn , Tom . 1968/1998 . The Beginning of the End, France, May 1968 , London : Verso . "Foreword" and "Prelude."
  • de Benoist , Alain . "La France aurait mieux feit de garder Daniel Cohn-Bendit," . 16 le Mai 68 de la nouvelle droite
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1977 . Vu de droite , 19 Paris : Copemic .
  • Cohen , Gerald . 1986 . The New Right: Image and Reality , 52 London : Runnymede Trust . Pierre Vial quoted in
  • Vial , Pierre and Rollat , Alain . 1984 . "Où est donc passé la nouvelle droite?," . Le Monde , 17 November
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1982 . "L'ennemi principal," . Eléments , 41 March-April : 46
  • Ibid., 48.
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1997 . "An Interview with Alain de Benoist" . Right Now! , : 1 – 3 .
  • de Benoist , Alain and Champetier , Charles . 1999 . "La Nouvelle Droite de L'An 2000," . Eléments , 94 February : 10 – 23 .
  • Piccone , Paul . 1993 . "Confronting the French New Right: Old Prejudices or a New Political Paradigm," . Telos , 98-99 Winter : 7 Fall 1994
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1995 . "End of the Left-Right Dichotomy: The French Case," . Telos , 102 Winter
  • Tarchi , Marco . 1995 . "In Search of Right and Left," . Telos , 102 Winter
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1993-1994 . "The Idea of Empire," . Telos , 98-99 Winter De Benoist, "Three Interviews with Alain de Benoist,"
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1999 . "What is Racism," . Telos , 114 Winter
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1993 . "Democracy Revisited," . Telos , 95 Spring : 75
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1996 . "Confronting Globalization," . Telos , 108 Summer
  • 1998 . "Hayek: A Critique," . Telos , 110 Winter
  • Gottfried , Paul and Sunic . Against Democracy and Equality xii
  • Sunic . Against Democracy and Equality 154
  • de Benoist . Vu de droite 545 – 7 . For a translation of an Alain de Benoist essay about Ernst Junger which first appeared in the ND journal Nouvelle Ecole (40)
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1994 . "Between the Gods and the Titans," . The Scorpion , 15
  • Mohler , Armin . "German Nihilism," ” . In Fascism Edited by: Griffin . 351 – 4 . This spherical view of history was elaborated by the German thinker Armin Mohler. It rejects the Judéo-Christian, linear conception of history as "all-embracing" as well as excessively Western and de-spiritualized in nature. Instead, it views past, present, and future as moments of the spherical present. The spherical conception of history insists that the current age of materialist "decadence" must necessarily give way to a splendid new dawn of both politics and spirituality. For a better treatment of this point, See
  • de Benoist . Les idées à l'endroit 31 – 48 . For his Nietzschean influences, see
  • De Benoist . "Three Interviews with Alain de Benoist," ” . 184
  • Benda , Julien . 1969 . The Treason of the Clerks (1928), translated by Richard Aldington , New York : Norton .
  • Richard Golsan Fascism's Return: Scandal, Revision and Ideology Since 1980, "Introduction."
  • Wohl , Richard . 1991 . "French Fascism, Both Right and Left: Reflections on the Sternhell Controversy," . Journal of Modem History , 63 March
  • Griffin . "Plus ça change!," ” . 7 – 15 .
  • Taguieff . "An Interview With Pierre-André Taguieff," ” . 160
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1998 . "La France aurait mieux fait de garder Daniel Cohn-Bendit," ” . In le Mai 68 de la nouvelle droite , 10 Paris : Labyrinthe .
  • Griffin , Roger , ed. 1995 . Fascism , 351 – 4 . Oxford : Oxford University Press . This term was first explored and popularized by the German scholar Armin Mohler in the 1940s when he classified a vast and complex catalogue of non-Nazi variants of fascism and cultural pessimism in German cultural history. The "conservative revolution" had its greatest cultural and political impact in the period between the two world wars, or from 1918 to 1932
  • Marcuse , Herbert . 1964 . One-Dimensional Man , Boston : Beacon Press .
  • 1993 . "The Appeal to Vigilance of Forty Intellectuals," . Le Monde , 13 July
  • 1994 . "The Appeal to Vigilance," . Le Monde , 13 July
  • Johnson , Douglas . 1991 . "The New Right in France," ” . In Neo-Fascism in Europe , Edited by: Cheles , Luciano . 242 London : Longman .
  • Duranton-Crabol , Anne-Marie . 1988 . Visages de la Nouvelle droite: Le G.R.E.C.E. et son histoire , Paris : Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques .
  • Flood , Christopher . 1997 . "National Populism," ” . In Political Ideologies in Contemporary France , Edited by: Flood , Christopher and Bell , Laurence . 105 London : Pinter .
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1990 . Le Choc du Mois , July-August : 32 In 1990, Alain de Benoist made this important break with the FN when he declared the following: "For nearly half a century the French Right was conspicuous by its absence from all the great debates. … As for my position concerning the National Front, it is quite simple. I see in it no ideas which are my own and give meaning to my life. I think that the Right always ran the risk of falling into four major positions: liberalism, moral order, integralism, and racism. I fear that the National Front, a basically nationalist-populist party, is falling into all four by varying degrees."
  • Taguieff , Pierre-André and Duranton-Crabol . Visages de la Nouvelle droite 218
  • Rollat , Alain . 1985 . Les Hommes de l'extrême droite: Le Pen, Marie, Ortiz, et les autres , Paris : CalmannLévy . So, for example, Raymond Abellio (1908-1986) was an old French collaborator who was part of the patronage committee of GRECE journal Nouvelle Ecole and heavily influenced De Benoist's idea of a "spiritual" Europe fighting against the materialism of the Soviet East and Anglo-American dominated West. In addition, Roger Pearson, the President of the avowedly racist Northern League, also belonged to the patronage committee of Nouvelle Ecole. Finally, Michael Walker, the English editor of The Scorpion and a member of the editorial board of French ND journal Elements, personalty sheltered Roberto Fiore, the young Italian radical Right terrorist who fled to London after the 1980 Bologna train bombing. For additional ND links to the revolutionary Right milieu in general, See
  • Bihr , Alain . 1993 . "GRECE," . Celsius , 55 January
  • Lee , Martin . 1997 . The Beast Reawakens , 168 – 83 . Toronto : Little, Brown, and Company . For an overview of GRECE's negationist controversy in France in the mid-1980s and early 1990s
  • Taguieff , Pierre-André . 1993 . "An Interview with Pierre-André Taguieff," . Teks , 98-99 Winter Fall 1994
  • Taguieff . "An Interview with Pierre-André Taguieff," ” . 166
  • Simmons , Harvey . 1996 . The French National Front: The Extremist Challenge to Democracy , 208 Boulder , CO : Westview Press .
  • Taguieff , Pierre-André . 1994 . Sur la Nouvelle Droite , Paris : Descartes and Cie . On the ND's valorization of the ambiguous notion of the cultural "right to difference" which replaced GRECE's standard biological variants of racism
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1995 . "La Nouvelle Droite hier, aujourd'hui et demain," . Junge Freiheit , 18 August
  • 1996 . "Horizon 2000: Trois entretiens avec Alain de Benoist," ” . In Point de vue , 30 Paris : GRECE .
  • Griffin , Roger . 1998 . "Plus ça change! The Fascist Pedigree of the Nouvelle Droite," . paper presented at the conference The Extreme Right in France: 1880 to the Present . March 26-28 1998 , Dublin , Ireland.
  • Griffin , Roger . 2000 . "The Fascist Pedigree of the Nouvelle Droite," ” . In The Development of the Radical Right in France 1890-1995 , Edited by: Arnold , Edward . London : Routledge .
  • 2000 . "Between Metapolitics and Apoliteia: the New Right's Strategy for Conserving the Fascist Vision in the 'Interregnum,' " . Contemporary French Studies , 8 (2) February
  • Taguieff , Pierre-André . 1993 . "The New Right's View of European Identity," . Telos , 98-99 Winter : 99 – 125 . Fall 1994 For a complete review of the ND's ideological overhaul from racialist to scientific and then cultural arguments about "difference," see
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1986 . Démocratie: le problème , Paris : Labyrinthe . For an elaboration of the ND's notion of "organic democracy," see
  • Revelli , Marco . 1996 . "La nuova destra," . Inde , 18 May-August
  • Griffin . "Pus ça change! The Fascist Pedigree of the Nouvelle Droite" . Simmons, The French National Front , 207 – 37 . For examples of the ND as a form of cultural fascism
  • Maolain , Ciaran . 1987 . A World Directory of the Radical Right , 97 Essex , , England : Longman .
  • Sheehan , Thomas . 1981 . "Myth and Violence: the Fascism of Julius Evola and Alain de Benoist," . Social Research , 48
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1996 . L'empire intérieur , Paris : Fata Morgana .
  • Gottfried , Paul . 1993 . "Alain de Benoist's Anti-Americanism," . Telos , 98-99 Winter : 127 – 33 . Fall 1994
  • Eco , Umberto . 1995 . New York Review of Books , 22 June
  • Wolin , Richard . 1998 . "Designer Fascism," ” . In Fascism's Return: Scandal, Revision and Ideology Since 1980 , Edited by: Golsan , Richard . Lincoln , NB : University of Nebraska Press .
  • Taguieff . Sur La Nouvelle Droite 313
  • Taguieff . "An Interview With Pierre-André Taguieff," ” . 171
  • Ibid.
  • de Benoist , Alain . 1993 . "Three Interviews With Alain de Benoist," . Telos , 98-99 Winter : 189 Alain de Benoist has publicly admitted his intellectual and political roots within these revolutionary right-wing circles. See, for example Fall 1994
  • Duranton-Crabol , Anne-Marie . 1991 . L'Europe de l'extrême droite: De 1945 à nos jours , 68 – 72 . 113 – 4 . Brussels : Editions Complexe . It should be noted that De Benoist has sought to publicly distance himself from Walker by arguing that the latter "has his own views" which are "certainly" different from his own. De Benoist has similarly insisted that he has had no contact with Pierre Krebs, the leader of the German New Right, for about 20 years. Letter from Alain de Benoist to the author written in Paris on 26 September 1999
  • Simmons . The French National Front 209
  • Duranton-Crabol . Visages de la nouvelle droite 28
  • GRECE internai bulletin . 1969 . Nouvelle Ecole , May
  • Ibid.

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