Download or read book A Certain Idea of France written by Julian Jackson and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 866 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Masterly ... awesome reading ... an outstanding biography' Max Hastings, Sunday Times The definitive biography of the greatest French statesman of modern times In six weeks in the early summer of 1940, France was over-run by German troops and quickly surrendered. The French government of Marshal Pétain sued for peace and signed an armistice. One little-known junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. 'Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.' At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered into history. For the rest of the war, de Gaulle frequently bit the hand that fed him. He insisted on being treated as the true embodiment of France, and quarrelled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. He was prickly, stubborn, aloof and self-contained. But through sheer force of personality and bloody-mindedness he managed to have France recognised as one of the victorious Allies, occupying its own zone in defeated Germany. For ten years after 1958 he was President of France's Fifth Republic, which he created and which endures to this day. His pursuit of 'a certain idea of France' challenged American hegemony, took France out of NATO and twice vetoed British entry into the European Community. His controversial decolonization of Algeria brought France to the brink of civil war and provoked several assassination attempts. Julian Jackson's magnificent biography reveals this the life of this titanic figure as never before. It draws on a vast range of published and unpublished memoirs and documents - including the recently opened de Gaulle archives - to show how de Gaulle achieved so much during the War when his resources were so astonishingly few, and how, as President, he put a medium-rank power at the centre of world affairs. No previous biography has depicted his paradoxes so vividly. Much of French politics since his death has been about his legacy, and he remains by far the greatest French leader since Napoleon.
Download or read book De Gaulle written by Julian Jackson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-27 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The finest one-volume life of de Gaulle in English." —Richard Norton Smith, Wall Street Journal In a definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept Nazi domination of France, Julian Jackson captures this titanic figure as never before. Drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and resources of the recently opened de Gaulle archive, he shows how this volatile visionary put a broken France back at the center of world affairs.
Download or read book The General written by Jonathan Fenby and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No leader of modern times was more uniquely patriotic than Charles de Gaulle. In his twenties, he fought for France in the trenches and at the epic battle of Verdun. In the 1930s, he waged a lonely battle to enable France to better resist Hitler Germany. Thereafter, he twice rescued the nation from defeat and decline by extraordinary displays of leadership, political acumen, daring, and bluff, heading off civil war and leaving a heritage adopted by his successors of right and left. Le General, as he became known from 1940 on, appeared as if he was carved from a single monumental block, but was in fact extremely complex, a man with deep personal feelings and recurrent mood swings, devoted to his family and often seeking reassurance from those around him. This is a magisterial, sweeping biography of one of the great leaders of the twentieth century and of the country with which he so identified himself. Written with terrific verve, narrative skill, and rigorous detail, the first major work on de Gaulle in fifteen years brings alive as never before the private man as well as the public leader. -- Publisher description.
Download or read book Charles de Gaulle written by Don Cook and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of America’s longest-serving foreign correspondents, a biography of France’s controversial politician and statesman. The first major biography of Charles de Gaulle written from an American perspective, this book offers a compelling assessment of the French army officer, politician, and statesman. Author Don Cook, former bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, delineates de Gaulle’s obsession with power and how the military man rose to leadership in the years following the fall of France during the Second World War. Recounting de Gaulle’s triumphant quest to find dignity and independence for France, Cook masterfully brings to life one of Europe’s most influential leaders of the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Paris Game written by Ray Argyle and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2014-08-02 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a crucial moment in the Second World War, an obscure French general reaches a fateful personal decision: to fight on alone after his government’s flight from Paris and its capitulation to Nazi Germany. Amid the ravages of a world war, three men — a general, a president, and a prime minister — are locked in a rivalry that threatens their partnership and puts the world’s most celebrated city at risk of destruction before it can be liberated. This is the setting of The Paris Game, a dramatic recounting of how an obscure French general under sentence of death by his government launches on the most enormous gamble of his life: to fight on alone after his country’s capitulation to Nazi Germany. In a game of intrigue and double-dealing, Charles de Gaulle must struggle to retain the loyalty of Winston Churchill against the unforgiving opposition of Franklin Roosevelt and the traitorous manoeuvring of a collaborationist Vichy France. How he succeeds in restoring the honour of France and securing its place as a world power is the stuff of raw history, both stirring and engrossing.
Download or read book Charles de Gaulle written by Charles Cogan and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 1996 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to combine a comprehensive historical analysis of Charles de Gaulle and Gaullism with a selection of related documents. In a compelling narrative, Cogan examines the three major stages of de Gaulle's career, he also assesses the Gaullist movement and its legacy for France, for Europe, and for transatlantic relations. A collection of 25 primary sources - many of which have never before been published in English - allows a firsthand reading and analysis of an array of government documents, interviews, press conferences, and excerpts from de Gaulle's memoirs and speeches. Maps and photographs throughout, a headnote for each document, a chronology, questions for consideration, and suggestions for further reading help make this book a fascinating resource.
Download or read book France and Her Army written by Charles de Gaulle and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fransk militærhistorie. General de Gaulle's bog fra 1938 om Frankrig og den Franske Hær's historie og udvikling til og med 1. Verdenskrig. Bogen har følgende hovedafsnit: Origins ; Ancien Régime; The Revolution; Napoleon; From disaster to disaster ; Between two wars ; The Great War.
Download or read book Charles de Gaulle written by William R. Keylor and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this definitive history, William R. Keylor traces the tumultuous relationship between Charles de Gaulle and a host of other key twentieth-century figures: his former mentor Marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the collaborationist government in the southern French city of Vichy as the German army occupied the northern two-thirds of the country; Sir Winston Churchill, the British prime minister whose government supported and financed de Gaulle and the Free French, but who clashed with the French leader on a number of hot-button issues; and, most critically, the six American presidents from FDR to Nixon. Keylor uses the metaphor “thorn in the side” to emphasize the fact that challenges from the intrepid French leader were often an annoyance to the Americans, who all had many more important issues to deal with—World War II for Roosevelt and Truman, the Cold War for Eisenhower, and the Vietnam War for Kennedy and Johnson. Richard Nixon alone had an excellent relationship, but the two men overlapped for only four months before de Gaulle’s retirement. Thoroughly researched and deeply knowledgeable, this gripping book will appeal to all readers interested in contemporary French and US history.
Download or read book Napoleon and de Gaulle written by Patrice Gueniffey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of France’s most famous historians compares two exemplars of political and military leadership to make the unfashionable case that individuals, for better and worse, matter in history. Historians have taught us that the past is not just a tale of heroes and wars. The anonymous millions matter and are active agents of change. But in democratizing history, we have lost track of the outsized role that individual will and charisma can play in shaping the world, especially in moments of extreme tumult. Patrice Gueniffey provides a compelling reminder in this powerful dual biography of two transformative leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles de Gaulle. Both became national figures at times of crisis and war. They were hailed as saviors and were eager to embrace the label. They were also animated by quests for personal and national greatness, by the desire to raise France above itself and lead it on a mission to enlighten the world. Both united an embattled nation, returned it to dignity, and left a permanent political legacy—in Napoleon’s case, a form of administration and a body of civil law; in de Gaulle’s case, new political institutions. Gueniffey compares Napoleon’s and de Gaulle’s journeys to power; their methods; their ideas and writings, notably about war; and their postmortem reputations. He also contrasts their weaknesses: Napoleon’s limitless ambitions and appetite for war and de Gaulle’s capacity for cruelty, manifested most clearly in Algeria. They were men of genuine talent and achievement, with flaws almost as pronounced as their strengths. As many nations, not least France, struggle to find their soul in a rapidly changing world, Gueniffey shows us what a difference an extraordinary leader can make.
Download or read book In the Shadow of the General written by Sudhir Hazareesingh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-26 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French writer Francois Mauriac once predicted that "when de Gaulle will be here no longer, he will still be here." This insight has proved prophetic. In contemporary France, Charles de Gaulle has become a figure of legend, consistently acclaimed as the nation's pre-eminent "historical" figure. Central to this popularity is the recognition of his pivotal role as the founder, and then the leader, of the Resistance movement during the Second World War. Once might be tempted to conclude that it is the man who became mythical, not the institutions he created. But here, the paradoxes abound. For one thing, his personal popularity sits oddly with his social origins and professional background. Neither the nobility, nor the Catholic Church, nor the Army is particularly well-regarded in France today: in their different ways, they all symbolize antiquated traditions and values. So why, then, do the French nonetheless identify with, celebrate, and even revere this austere and devout nobleman, who remained closely wedded to military values throughout his life? In the Shadow of the General resolves this mystery and explains how de Gaulle has to come occupy such a privileged position in the French imagination. Sudhir Hazareesingh's story of how an individual life transformed into national myth also tells a great deal about the French collective self in the twenty-first century: its fractured memory, its aspirations to greatness, and its manifold anxieties. Alongside the tale of de Gaulle's legacy, a much broader narrative unfolds: the story of modern France.
Download or read book The Three Lives of Charles de Gaulle written by David Schoenbrun and published by New York : Atheneum. This book was released on 1966 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle written by Charles de Gaulle and published by Carroll & Graf Pub. This book was released on 1998 with total page 1048 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in three separate volumes covering three distinct periods, this single edition encompasses all the personal writings by one of this century's most prominent generals and statesmen from the fall of France in 1940 to the aftermath of World War II in 1946. The first section, "The Call to Honor," recounts the confusion and despair triggered by Hitler's blitzkrieg invasion of France. The second section, "Unity," describes de Gaulle's struggles to rally the Free French in Africa and in underground movements throughout Europe, his bitter conflict with the Vichy puppet regime ruling occupied France, and his cooperation with the Allied powers. "Salvation," the final installment, chronicles the turning of the tide of war against Nazi Germany, de Gaulle's triumphant return to France, and the reincarnation of the French Republic as a major international presence. - Back cover.
Download or read book Churchill and de Gaulle written by Will Morrisey and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares Churchill and de Gaulle as they thought, spoke, and acted through two world wars and the subsequent Cold War. Although the world is very different now, this nuanced history shows how thinking along with these giants of the twentieth century as they responded to the crises of their time will make us more thoughtful citizens today.
Download or read book The Liberation of Paris written by Jean Edward Smith and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prize-winning and bestselling historian Jean Edward Smith tells the “rousing” (Jay Winik, author of 1944) story of the liberation of Paris during World War II—a triumph achieved only through the remarkable efforts of Americans, French, and Germans, racing to save the city from destruction. Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across northern France in pursuit of the German army. The Allies intended to bypass Paris and cross the Rhine into Germany, ending the war before winter set in. But as they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops. Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Eisenhower’s advisers recommended otherwise, but Ike wanted to help position de Gaulle to lead France after the war. And both men were concerned about partisan conflict in Paris that could leave the communists in control of the city and the national government. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, convinced that the war was lost, schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler’s orders to leave it a burning ruin. In The Liberation of Paris, Jean Edward Smith puts “one of the most moving moments in the history of the Second World War” (Michael Korda) in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: it slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup. After the war German generals argued that Eisenhower’s decision to enter Paris prolonged the war for another six months. Was Paris worth this price? Smith answers this question in a “brisk new recounting” that is “terse, authoritative, [and] unsentimental” (The Washington Post).
Download or read book Political Leadership in France written by John Gaffney and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book JFK and de Gaulle written by Sean J. McLaughlin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite French President Charles de Gaulle's persistent efforts to constructively share French experience and use his resources to help engineer an American exit from Vietnam, the Kennedy administration responded to de Gaulle's peace initiatives with bitter silence and inaction. The administration's response ignited a series of events that dealt a massive blow to American prestige across the globe, resulting in the deaths of over fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and turning hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese citizens into refugees. This history of Franco-American relations during the Kennedy presidency explores how and why France and the US disagreed over the proper western strategy for the Vietnam War. France clearly had more direct political experience in Vietnam, but France's postwar decolonization cemented Kennedy's perception that the French were characterized by a toxic mixture of short-sightedness, stubbornness, and indifference to the collective interests of the West. At no point did the Kennedy administration give serious consideration to de Gaulle's proposals or entertain the notion of using his services as an honest broker in order to disengage from a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control. Kennedy's Francophobia, the roots of which appear in a selection of private writings from Kennedy's undergraduate years at Harvard, biased his decision-making. The course of action Kennedy chose in 1963, a rejection of the French peace program, all but handcuffed Lyndon Johnson into formally entering a war he knew the United States had little chance of winning.
Download or read book Charles de Gaulle written by Régis Debray and published by Verso. This book was released on 1994 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this elegant and original book, Regis Debray argues that for two hundred years the defeats of the left have stemmed from its failure to understand what it likes to call the 'national question', while equally its successes have grown from an unacknowledged liaison with the 'unreal reality' of the nation. According to Debray, Charles DE Gaulle was no narrow nationalist. By grounding his actions in a generous philosophy of the nation he was able to wed boldness to insight: on 14 June 1940 he appointed himself leader of the free French, disregarding the overwhelming parliamentary and legal mandate according to Petain. This intuitive action was to be resoundingly vindicated in the resistance and liberation of France. This study of De Gaulle is offered as an indictment of the shallowness of contemporary politics in the West. For Debray, De Gaulle is not only the last statesman in the classic mould, he is also the first to anticipate the politics of the twenty-first century. De Gaulle's aloofness from the media and disdain for the base arts of electioneering have an exemplary quality, Debray believes, reaffirming the vocation of political leadership as something other than adapting to popular preferences or allowing professional communicators and opinion pollsters to set every agenda.
