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This article will evaluate the impact of the NRF upon the educated classes in France between 1919 and 1925. Although at first glance literary preoccupations dominated the journal and specifically political discussions occupied a marginal place, examining the aesthetic discourse as a whole reveals a different picture. It shows that the journal was deeply embedded in the political context of the time, despite its outward appearance of detachment. A passionate debate regarding the merits of classicism over romanticism underlay the journal’s critical discussions. Whereas in 1919 the term classicism was linked to a wartime Manichean representation, by 1924 classicism was used to express a rejection of the war, which was instead negatively associated with romanticism. This debate within the NRF reveals how the journal engaged with a post-war process of revising identity values, the political impact of which was far from negligible.