Battlefields and memories of war. The exemplarity of the celebration of the Marne victory from 1916 to 1939

After the ostentation of the pre-war period ceremonies, the First World War raised the question of the meaning of the slaughters and of their memory. As early as 1915, the regime organized its own commemoration to comfort the morale of the people at the back and justify the sacrifice of tis children . The celebration of the 'Marne Victory' was a forerunner of the post-war c elebrations and of '11 November.' Organized around a sacralized space, it w as at the origin of a 'war memory' compounded of religiosity and power stak es. By turning the 'Marne miracle' and Peguy's death into an instrument, th e Republic turned the celebration into the vessel of the passions of the ti me. It became the tilt-yard of the opposition between the leagues and the r egime, watched by a French population haunted by memory and troubled by the communists' and leagues' novelties. The management of the war inheritance, the omnipresence of the leagues, the scenography and the incidents that to ok place during these ceremonies announced the 1940 collapse, the 'brutaliz ation' of the war memory and the blurring of the collective landmarks of th e thirties.