Scottish Enlightenment

Jack E. Reece. The Bretons against France: Ethnic Minority Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Brittany. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1977. xxii + 263 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. $80.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8078-1304-4

The Breton Front

When one thinks about modern Breton culture, pictures of tall, blond, patriotic Celts in traditional dress spring to one's mind. Before the rise of nationalism in Brittany, though, the stereotypical view of the Breton couldn't be further from the modern one. For decades on end, the Bretons were mocked and exploited by their “countrymen” as they struggled to find an identity in the immense social changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Out of all this turmoil came the modern idea of a proud Breton identity and heritage. This concept of a “proud Breton” is less than a century old, and, according to Jack Reece, has in large part been shaped by Breton Nationalists. Reece's book, The Bretons Against France started out as a doctoral dissertation is an examination of the failures and successes of Breton Nationalism. After ten years of research, and help from his colleagues at the history department of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford, Reece completed this fair look at the rise of modern ethnic minority nationalism in Brittany and abroad (p. xi). He hoped that by understanding the rise of ethnic minority nationalism in one of the oldest and most centralized States in the world, France, one would be able to better understand the corresponding minority nationalist movements gaining momentum in the rest of Europe (pp. xii-xiv).

This book would be highly useful as a secondary source for research uses. First, the bibliography attached to this book is very impressive. Since this book began its life as a doctoral dissertation, one can be assured that all the necessary steps to ensure that a reliable source is being used have been taken. The author, Doctor Jack E. Reece was a respected historian of modern Europe at the University of Stanford for twenty-five years (ix), which gives him a fair amount of credibility. Reece's book is also full of endnotes, which aren't as hassle free as footnotes, but they are just as informative and helpful for research. Another positive about this book is that Reece tends to hide his biases well, making for a far less sensationalist account of the movement than nationalist writers. Reece duly praises nationalism for what it has done positively for Brittany, but contrary to the nationalists, he admits that the various separatist organizations failed often. On top of all of this, the story that Reece tells is very interesting and at times almost poetically-worded.

To help the reader get a better understanding of the mind frame of the people that he or she will be reading about, Reece gives the reader a broad nationalistic historical viewpoint from both French and German ideologies. To a Frenchman, France has been a sovereign and whole nation since Clovis' baptism in 496 C.E., this is what the French are taught in grade school. A Breton, though, would say that French history is, “[a] history of French assimilation and loss of Breton national identity” (p. 4). After this brief insight, he sets the trend for the rest of the book and describes failure after failure of ducal Brittany, from the aristocracy's oppression of the poor to the inability of Duchess Anne to keep Brittany a sovereign state (p. 10). This brief historical summary about Brittany is greatly appreciated, especially when the only knowledge one has of ancient Brittany is from stories told around the dinner table. However, this is a section where Reece's biases can be noticed. While he gives an accurate account of what happens, the negative language he uses speak volumes. For example, he says, “whatever the enduring historical significance of Nominoe's (Breton King) achievement, the kingdom that he fashioned lasted barely more than half a century” (9) Reece almost seems like he is just trying to take the common national symbols of Brittany and portray them in exactly the opposite way a Breton extremist would.

After this informative but slightly biased introduction to Breton history, Reece begins telling the story of the rise of Breton Nationalism. According to Reece, nationalist ideas emerged in Brittany as a result of French encroachment upon the Breton language. He says that the language difference between Brittany and France was a powerful force of separation. Reece says, “To speak Breton is to live on the periphery of French society” (p. 11). Also, the simple agricultural Breton lifestyle was also at odds with the industrialization of the rest of France. These factors only perpetuated the French belief that Bretons were dimwitted and primitive. This is especially true during the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Breton peasants of this time were seen as virtually useless by central France. They were only good for cheap labor, cheap food, and a steady supply of men for the army (pp. 29-30). For many Bretons, it was shameful to bear their native heritage and speak their maternal tongue. Because of this shame, many Breton children were never taught their native language. Breton mothers, in fact, were the first to truly stop the usage and spread of Breton by only teaching their children to speak French. To teach a child Breton was to subject him or her to mockery at school. Reece says, “both teachers and Francophone classmates made [Breton Speaking] students the object of patronizing scorn. Their curious Breton costumes, rude manner, and above all else their strange-sounding language earned them humiliating nicknames as well” (p. 31). Only a strong cohesive Breton identity could possibly turn their negative image around.

During the start of the Republic, the elite class of Brittany was the Church, the clerico-aristocracy. Catholicism dominated nearly every aspect of the highly religious Bretons' lives and afterlives (p. 50). With so much power and no desire to lose it, the church took up the banner of Brittany to try to keep as much land as they could. Luckily for them, around the nineteenth century, the first stirrings of Breton nationalism came from those allied with the clerico-aristocracy, the Breton Regionalists (p. 64). Regionalists didn't want their own Breton nation, they wanted economic freedom from the Republic. In spite of a large amount of initial support, this organization surprisingly fizzled out after World War I, due to a constant amount of fighting between members (p. 67).

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