YOUTH MOVEMENTS IN FRANCE BETWEEN 2 WARS

Youth organizations began to flourish in France, as in many other coun tries, just after the First World War. This phenomenon occurred in all political and ideological circles, but in France it was particularly prominent among religious and educational movements. Although very var ied in spirit, these movements all emphasized a similar idea of social izing youth by focusing on the importance of education, militancy and community life. Homogeneity in these groups was often reinforced by sy mbolic rituals and by the creation of a specific youth community cut o ff from the outside world. To a certain extent, it is possible to rela te the growth of these youth movements to the great upheavals which sh ook society during and after the First World War, but the root of the phenomenon is more likely to be found in the pre-war period. Even if t heir function seems to have been to integrate rather than to contest, they nevertheless represented for the young a way of asserting themsel ves, and therefore announced the great upheavals of the second part of the twentieth century.