Youth Culture and Generational Conflict

The war created France's first distinct youth culture, defined by shared trauma rather than age. The "generation of fire" developed values, behaviors, and perspectives incomprehensible to those who hadn't experienced combat. This generational divide would define interwar France.

Young men aged rapidly in trenches. Boys who enlisted at eighteen returned—if they returned—as old men in young bodies. They had seen humanity's worst, experienced industrialized death, survived through luck rather than virtue. Traditional values—honor, glory, patriotism—seemed hollow lies used by old men to sacrifice youth.

Veterans developed distinct cultural markers. Their humor was dark, incomprehensible to civilians. They drank heavily, seeking oblivion from memories. Their sexuality was direct, urgent—life's fragility made delayed gratification absurd. They trusted only fellow veterans, creating closed communities excluding those who hadn't shared their experience.

The conflict with older generations was bitter. Youth blamed elders for the war, for lies about glory, for profiting while youth died. Pierre Drieu La Rochelle expressed this rage: "You sent us to die for your stupidities—your nationalism, your capitalism, your colonialism. We returned to find you unchanged, still mouthing platitudes that cost us everything."

Women of the war generation faced different but equally profound changes. They had worked, earned, and decided while men fought. Return to prewar submission was impossible. Young women bobbed their hair, shortened skirts, smoked publicly, and demanded education and careers. The "garçonne" (flapper) scandalized traditional society but expressed irrepressible change.