Robert J. Young was a professor of History at the University of Winnipeg

University of Winnipeg

The University of Winnipeg is a public university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and theology as well as graduate programs. The U of W's founding colleges were Manitoba College and Wesley College, which merged...

 from 1967 until 2008. He specializes in 20th century Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an international politics. A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan

University of Saskatchewan

The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...

 and the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

, Young's doctoral

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 dissertation was written under the supervision of Donald Cameron Watt. It was published by Harvard University Press

Harvard University Press

Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...

 as In Command of France: French Foreign Policy and Military Planning, 1933-1940. Over the last forty years, Professor Young, a Canadian, has written numerous academic books and articles including France and the Origins of the Second World War and Louis Barthou

Louis Barthou

Jean Louis Barthou was a French politician of the Third Republic.-Early years:He was born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and served as Deputy from that constituency. He was an authority on trade union history and law. Barthou was Prime Minister in 1913, and held ministerial office...

: Power and Pleasure. Throughout, he has consistently rejected the la décadence thesis that the alleged decadence

Decadence

Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...

 of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the 1930s made the Fall of France inevitable.

Work

• "Preparations for Defeat: French War Doctrine in the Inter-War Period" pages 155-172 from Journal of European Studies, Issue #2, June 1972.
• "The Aftermath of Munich: The Course of French Diplomacy, October 1938 to March 1939" pages 305-322 from French Historical Studies, Fall 1973.
• "The Strategic Dream: French Air Doctrine in the Inter-War Period, 1919-1939" pages 31-42 from Journal of Contemporary History, October 1974.
• In Command of France: French Foreign Policy and Military planning, 1933-1940, Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1978, ISBN 0674445368.
• "La Guerre de Longue Durée: Some Reflections on French Strategy and Diplomacy in the 1930s" pages 41-64 from General Staffs and Diplomacy Before the Second World War edited by Adrian Preston, London: Colm Helm, 1978.
• French Foreign Policy, 1918-1945: A Guide to Research and Research Materials, Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1981, ISBN 0842021787.
• "French Military Intelligence and Nazi Germany" pages 271-309 from Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment Before the Second World War edited by Ernest May, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
• "The Use and Abuse of Fear: France and the Air Menance in the 1930s" pages 88-109 from Intelligence and National Security, Issue #4, 1987.
• Power and Pleasure : Louis Barthou and the Third French Republic, Montreal : McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991, ISBN 0773508635.
• France and the Origins of the Second World War, St. Martin's Press: New York, 1996, ISBN 9 780312 161866
• “In the Eye of the Beholder: The Cultural Representation of France and Germany by the New York Times 1939-1940” pages 245-268 from The French Defeat of 1940 Reassessments edited by Joel Blatt, Berghahn Books, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, 1998, ISBN 1-57181-109-5.
• “A Douce and Dextrous Persuasion: French Propaganda and Franco-American Relations in the 1930s” pages 195-214 from French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940 The Decline and Fall of A Great Power edited by Robert Boyce, London, United Kingdom: Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-415-15039-6.
• Marketing Marianne : French Propaganda in America, 1900-1940, New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2004, ISBN 0813533775.
• An Uncertain Idea of France : Essays and Reminiscence on the Third Republic, New York : P. Lang, 2005, ISBN 0820474819.