Mitterrand Confronts the Intellectuals

The French left came to power with roses in the Pantheon, Beethoven in the streets, a president-writer, and a minister of culture who directed plays rather than bureaucracies: a far cry from Giscard under whose reign culture was little more than the “proper,” somewhat fossilized accoutrement of the social life of an enarque (graduate of l’Ecole nationale d’administration). For the Socialists, culture is life itself and humanism must replace technocracy’s hold over la douce France. Economics may suffer, but ideas should prosper under such a government. Or so it would seem.

Is there a major entente between politics, intellectuals, and culture in Mitterrand’s France? Has the Left Bank...