This book examines the efforts of the French-speaking minority in Flanders, Belgium, to maintain a legal and social presence of the French language in Flemish public life. Chronologically, the study is bookended by two developments, almost exactly a century apart. In 1873, the first laws were passed which required the use of Dutch in some aspects of public administration in Flanders, challenging the de facto use of French among the Flemish ruling class. One hundred and one years later, the last French daily newspaper in Flanders collapsed, marking the end of a once-vibrant French-language public sphere in Flanders. The author contends that the methods and arguments by which French speakers defended the role of French in Flemish public life changed along with the social and political situation of this minority. As the Flemish movement grew over the course of the twentieth century, French speakers’ appeals to the “free choice” of language lost traction, and they put forward claims that they represented an ethnolinguistic minority who deserved protection for their mother tongue. Providing new insights for scholars of European history, and in conversation with the literature on liberalism, national identity, and Francophonie, this book demonstrates how the debate over the role of French in Flanders was at the center of Belgium’s ethnolinguistic conflict – the repercussions of which continue to be felt to this day.
Chapter 1: Introduction.
Chapter 2: Dominance Challenged: The
French-Speakers of Flanders and Calls for Linguistic Equality before World
War I.
Chapter 3: A War of Words: Invasion, Occupation, and the Shattering
of Flanderss Linguistic Equilibrium, 1914-1918.
Chapter 4: From Resurgence
to Retreat: The French-Speakers of Flanders from the End of World War I to
the Language Laws of the 1930s.
Chapter 5: An Uneasy Status Quo, 1932-1960.-
Chapter 6: Decline and Fall: The Last Fights for French in Flanders,
1960-1974.
Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Continued Presence of the Francophones
of Flanders.
David J. Hensley is Associate Professor of History at Georgia Highlands College, USA. He previously taught at Queens University Belfast and the University of Central Oklahoma.
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