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Between two quotations. A look at mathematics in France between the two wars. Introduction. (Entre deux citations. Regards sur les mathématiques en France entre les deux guerres. Introduction.) (French) Zbl 1210.01012

After a four-page florilegium of quotations left to speak for themselves follows the editorial introduction to a thematic issue of the Revue d’histoire des sciences, meant to return critically to the wide-spread view of French inter-war mathematics as stagnant, outmoded or unproductive in consequence of the disappearance of much of the young generation in the trenches (and sociological factors depending on career possibilities). After outlining the logic of this view and pointing to shades and objections, for which Beaulieu draws on her own dissertation on Bourbaki from 1990, she sketches what has been done during the following two decades, closing by an outline of the thematic issue as a whole.
In various places in the introduction, interesting observations are made concerning the importance of Strasbourg University, strongly favoured for political reasons and in consequence the only major centre for French mathematics outside Paris (with the Institut Henri Poincaré and the École Normale Supérieure) in the period.

MSC:

01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
01A80 Sociology (and profession) of mathematics
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