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Book Our Oldest Enemy

Download or read book Our Oldest Enemy written by John J. Miller and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberté? Egalité? Fraternité? Or just plain gall? In this provocative and brilliantly researched history of how the French have dealt with the United States, John J. Miller and Mark Molesky demonstrate that the cherished idea of French friendship has little basis in reality. Despite the myth of the “sister republics,” the French have always been our rivals, and have harmed and obstructed our interests more often than not. This history of French hostility goes back to 1704, when a group of French and Indians massacred American settlers in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The authors also debunk the myth of French aid during the Revolution: contrary to popular notions, the French did not enter the war until very late and were mainly interested in hurting their rivals, the British. After the war, the French continued to see themselves as major players in the Western hemisphere and shaped their policies to limit the growth and power of the new nation. The notorious XYZ affair, involving French efforts to undermine the government of George Washington, led to an undeclared naval war with France in 1798. During the Civil War, the French supported the Confederacy and installed a puppet emperor in Mexico. In the twentieth century, Americans clashed with the French repreatedly. The French victory over President Wilson at Versailles imposed a short-sighted and punitive settlement on Germany that paved the way for the rise of fascism in the 1930s. During World War II, Vichy French troops killed hundreds of American soldiers in North Africa, and diehard French fascist units fought against the Allies in the rubble of Berlin. During the Cold War, Charles DeGaulle yanked France out of NATO and obstructed our efforts to roll back Soviet expansion. The legacy of French imperial power has been no less disastrous. The French left Haiti in a shambles, got us into Vietnam, and educated many of the world’s worst tyrants at their elite universities, including Pol Pot, the genocidal Cambodian dictator. The fascist Baath regimes in Iraq and Syria are another legacy of failed French colonialism. Americans have been particularly irritated by French cultural arrogance—their crusades against American movies, McDonalds, Disney, and the exclusion of American words from their language have always rubbed us the wrong way. This irritation has now blossomed into outrage. Our Oldest Enemy shows why that outrage is justified.

Book France and the Americas  3 volumes

Download or read book France and the Americas 3 volumes written by Bill Marshall and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-05-24 with total page 1334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique, multidisciplinary encyclopedia covering the impacts that French and American politics, foreign policy, and culture have had on shaping each country's identity. From 17th-century fur traders in Canada to 21st-century peacekeepers in Haiti, from France's decisive role in the Revolutionary War leading to the creation of the United States to recent disagreements over Iraq, France and the Americas charts the history of the inextricable links between France and the nations of the Americas. This comprehensive survey features an incisive introduction and a chronology of key events, spanning 400 years of France's transatlantic relations. Students of many disciplines, as well as the lay reader, will appreciate this comprehensive survey, which traces the common themes of both French policy, language, and influence throughout the Americas and the wide-ranging transatlantic influences on contemporary France.

Book France and the American Civil War

Download or read book France and the American Civil War written by Stève Sainlaude and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France's involvement in the American Civil War was critical to its unfolding, but the details of the European power's role remain little understood. Here, Steve Sainlaude offers the first comprehensive history of French diplomatic engagement with the Union and the Confederate States of America during the conflict. Drawing on archival sources that have been neglected by scholars up to this point, Sainlaude overturns many commonly held assumptions about French relations with the Union and the Confederacy. As Sainlaude demonstrates, no major European power had a deeper stake in the outcome of the conflict than France. Reaching beyond the standard narratives of this history, Sainlaude delves deeply into questions of geopolitical strategy and diplomacy during this critical period in world affairs. The resulting study will help shift the way Americans look at the Civil War and extend their understanding of the conflict in global context.

Book America s First Ally

    Book Details:
  • Author : Norman Desmarais
  • Publisher : Casemate
  • Release : 2019-01-19
  • ISBN : 1612007023
  • Pages : 313 pages

Download or read book America s First Ally written by Norman Desmarais and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2019-01-19 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Revolutionary War historian provides “a comprehensive and accessible guide” to the vital influence France had on America’s path to independence (Publishers Weekly). French support for United States independence was both vital and varied, ranging from ideological inspiration to financial and military support. In this study, historian Norman Desmarais offers an in-depth analysis of this crucial relationship, exploring whether America could have won its independence without its first ally. Demarais begins with the contributions of French Enlightenment thinkers who provided the intellectual frameworks for the American and French revolutions. He then covers the many forms of aid provided by France during the Revolutionary War, including the contributions of individual French officers and troops, as well as covert aid provided before the war began. France also provided naval assistance, particularly to the American privateers who harassed British shipping. Detailed accounts drawn from ships’ logs, court and auction records, newspapers, letters, diaries, journals, and pension applications. In a more sweeping analysis, Desmarais explores the international nature of a war which some consider the first world war. When France and Spain entered the conflict, they fought the Crown forces in their respective areas of economic interest. In addition to the engagements in the Atlantic Ocean, along the American and European coasts and in the West Indies, there are accounts of action in India and the East Indies, South America and Africa.

Book When France Fell

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael S. Neiberg
  • Publisher : Harvard University Press
  • Release : 2021-10-19
  • ISBN : 0674258568
  • Pages : 321 pages

Download or read book When France Fell written by Michael S. Neiberg and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked US leaders rushed to back the Vichy governmentÑa fateful decision that nearly destroyed the AngloÐAmerican alliance. According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the Òmost shocking single eventÓ of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of the American responseÑa policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain. The successful Nazi invasion of France destabilized American plannersÕ strategic assumptions. At home, the result was huge increases in defense spending, the advent of peacetime military conscription, and domestic spying to weed out potential fifth columnists. Abroad, the United States decided to work with Vichy France despite its pro-Nazi tendencies. The USÐVichy partnership, intended to buy time and temper the flames of war in Europe, severely strained AngloÐAmerican relations. American leaders naively believed that they could woo men like Philippe PŽtain, preventing France from becoming a formal German ally. The British, however, understood that Vichy was subservient to Nazi Germany and instead supported resistance figures such as Charles de Gaulle. After the war, the choice to back Vichy tainted USÐFrench relations for decades. Our collective memory of World War II as a period of American strength overlooks the desperation and faulty decision making that drove US policy from 1940 to 1943. Tracing the key diplomatic and strategic moves of these formative years, When France Fell gives us a more nuanced and complete understanding of the war and of the global position the United States would occupy afterward.

Book Brothers at Arms

    Book Details:
  • Author : Larrie D. Ferreiro
  • Publisher : Vintage
  • Release : 2017-10-03
  • ISBN : 1101910305
  • Pages : 466 pages

Download or read book Brothers at Arms written by Larrie D. Ferreiro and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award At the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the American colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Larrie Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.

Book Why France

Download or read book Why France written by Laura Lee Downs and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A diverse array of historians provide autobiographical essays in which they explore their intellectual, political, and personal engagements with France and its past.

Book France in the American Revolution

Download or read book France in the American Revolution written by James Breck Perkins and published by Houghton. This book was released on 1911 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Washington s Farewell Address

Download or read book Washington s Farewell Address written by George Washington and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book France  Mexico and Informal Empire in Latin America  1820 1867

Download or read book France Mexico and Informal Empire in Latin America 1820 1867 written by Edward Shawcross and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores French imperialism in Latin America in the nineteenth century, taking Mexico as a case study. The standard narrative of nineteenth-century imperialism in Latin America is one of US expansion and British informal influence. However, it was France, not Britain, which made the most concerted effort to counter US power through Louis-Napoléon’s military intervention in Mexico, begun in 1862, which created an empire on the North American continent under the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian. Despite its significance to French and Latin American history, this French imperial project is invariably described as an “illusion”, an “adventure” or a “mirage”. This book challenges these conclusions and places the French intervention in Mexico within the context of informal empire. It analyses French and Mexican ideas about monarchy in Latin America; responses to US expansion and the development of anti-Americanism and pan-Latinism; the consolidation of Mexican conservatism; and, finally, the collaboration of some Mexican elites with French imperialism. An important dimension of the relationship between Mexico and France, explored in the book, is the transatlantic and transnational context in which it developed, where competing conceptions of Mexico and France as nations, the role of Europe and the United States in the Americas and the idea of Latin America itself were challenged and debated.

Book France in the World

    Book Details:
  • Author : Patrick Boucheron
  • Publisher : Other Press, LLC
  • Release : 2019-04-09
  • ISBN : 1590519418
  • Pages : 993 pages

Download or read book France in the World written by Patrick Boucheron and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 993 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dynamic collection presents a new way of writing national and global histories while developing our understanding of France in the world through short, provocative essays that range from prehistoric frescoes to Coco Chanel to the terrorist attacks of 2015. Bringing together an impressive group of established and up-and-coming historians, this bestselling history conceives of France not as a fixed, rooted entity, but instead as a place and an idea in flux, moving beyond all borders and frontiers, shaped by exchanges and mixtures. Presented in chronological order from 34,000 BC to 2015, each chapter covers a significant year from its own particular angle--the marriage of a Viking leader to a Carolingian princess proposed by Charles the Fat in 882, the Persian embassy's reception at the court of Louis XIV in 1715, the Chilean coup d'état against President Salvador Allende in 1973 that mobilized a generation of French left-wing activists. France in the World combines the intellectual rigor of an academic work with the liveliness and readability of popular history. With a brand-new preface aimed at an international audience, this English-language edition will be an essential resource for Francophiles and scholars alike.

Book Citizenship and Belonging in France and North America

Download or read book Citizenship and Belonging in France and North America written by Ramona Mielusel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first decades of the new millennium have been marked by major political changes. Although The West has wished to revisit internal and international politics concerning migration policies, refugee status, integration, secularism, and the dismantling of communitarianism, events like the Syrian refugee crisis, the terrorist attacks in France in 2015-2016, and the economic crisis of 2008 have resurrected concepts such as national identity, integration, citizenship and re-shaping state policies in many developed countries. In France and Canada, more recent public elections have brought complex democratic political figures like Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau to the public eye. Both leaders were elected based on their promising political agendas that aimed at bringing their countries into the new millennium; Trudeau promotes multiculturalism, while Macron touts the diverse nation and the inclusion of diverse ethnic communities to the national model. This edited collection aims to establish a dialogue between these two countries and across disciplines in search of such discursive illustrations and opposing discourses. Analyzing the cultural and political tensions between minority groups and the state in light of political events that question ideas of citizenship and belonging to a multicultural nation, the chapters in this volume serve as a testimonial to the multiple views on the political and public perception of multicultural practices and their national and international applicability to our current geopolitical context.

Book The French Way

    Book Details:
  • Author : Richard F. Kuisel
  • Publisher : Princeton University Press
  • Release : 2012
  • ISBN : 0691161984
  • Pages : 513 pages

Download or read book The French Way written by Richard F. Kuisel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the French have used American culture to define a unique modern identity There are over 1,000 McDonald's on French soil. Two Disney theme parks have opened near Paris in the last two decades. And American-inspired vocabulary such as "le weekend" has been absorbed into the French language. But as former French president Jacques Chirac put it: "The U.S. finds France unbearably pretentious. And we find the U.S. unbearably hegemonic." Are the French fascinated or threatened by America? They Americanize yet are notorious for expressions of anti-Americanism. From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to free markets and foreign policy, this book looks closely at the conflicts and contradictions of France's relationship to American politics and culture. Richard Kuisel shows how the French have used America as both yardstick and foil to measure their own distinct national identity. They ask: how can we be modern like the Americans without becoming like them? France has charted its own path: it has welcomed America's products but rejected American policies; assailed America's "jungle capitalism" while liberalizing its own economy; attacked "Reaganomics'" while defending French social security; and protected French cinema, television, food, and language even while ingesting American pop culture. Kuisel examines France's role as an independent ally of the United States—in the reunification of Germany and in military involvement in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia—but he also considers the country's failures in influencing the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. Whether investigating France's successful information technology sector or its spurning of American expertise during the AIDS epidemic, Kuisel asks if this insistence on a French way represents a growing distance between Europe and the United States or a reaction to American globalization. Exploring cultural trends, values, public opinion, and political reality, The French Way delves into the complex relationship between two modern nations.

Book Replacing France

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kathryn C. Statler
  • Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
  • Release : 2007-06-22
  • ISBN : 0813137322
  • Pages : 392 pages

Download or read book Replacing France written by Kathryn C. Statler and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2007-06-22 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using recently released archival materials from the United States and Europe, Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam explains how and why the United States came to assume control as the dominant western power in Vietnam during the 1950s. Acting on their conviction that American methods had a better chance of building a stable, noncommunist South Vietnamese nation, Eisenhower administration officials systematically ejected French military, economic, political, bureaucratic, and cultural institutions from Vietnam. Kathryn C. Statler examines diplomatic maneuvers in Paris, Washington, London, and Saigon to detail how Western alliance members sought to transform South Vietnam into a modern, westernized, and democratic ally but ultimately failed to counter the Communist threat. Abetted by South Vietnamese prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem, Americans in Washington, D.C., and Saigon undermined their French counterparts at every turn, resulting in the disappearance of a French presence by the time Kennedy assumed office. Although the United States ultimately replaced France in South Vietnam, efforts to build South Vietnam into a nation failed. Instead, it became a dependent client state that was unable to withstand increasing Communist aggression from the North. Replacing France is a fundamental reassessment of the origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that explains how Franco-American conflict led the United States to pursue a unilateral and ultimately imperialist policy in Vietnam.

Book The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War

Download or read book The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War written by Edward Jackson Lowell and published by New York : Harper & Bros.. This book was released on 1884 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Expanding Blaze

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jonathan Israel
  • Publisher : Princeton University Press
  • Release : 2019-11-26
  • ISBN : 0691195935
  • Pages : 768 pages

Download or read book The Expanding Blaze written by Jonathan Israel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A major intellectual history of the American Revolution and its influence on later revolutions in Europe and the Americas, the Expanding Blaze is a sweeping history of how the American Revolution inspired revolutions throughout Europe and the Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jonathan Israel, one of the world's leading historians of the Enlightenment, shows how the radical ideas of American founders such as Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe set the pattern for democratic revolutions, movements, and constitutions in France, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Canada, Haiti, Brazil, and Spanish America. The Expanding Blaze reminds us that the American Revolution was an astonishingly radical event--and that it didn't end with the transformation and independence of America. Rather, the revolution continued to reverberate in Europe and the Americas for the next three-quarters of a century. This comprehensive history of the revolution's international influence traces how American efforts to implement Radical Enlightenment ideas--including the destruction of the old regime and the promotion of democratic republicanism, self-government, and liberty--helped drive revolutions abroad, as foreign leaders explicitly followed the American example and espoused American democratic values. The first major new intellectual history of the age of democratic revolution in decades, The Expanding Blaze returns the American Revolution to its global context."--

Book Pioneers of France in the New World

Download or read book Pioneers of France in the New World written by Francis Parkman and published by Boston : Little, Brown. This book was released on 1885 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the sixteenth century, Spain claimed the fabled New World, and a rash of explorers sailed there seeking riches and, most famously, a fountain of youth. Although France made inroads into Florida, ultimately the French, like the Spanish, failed to establish dominion over North America. Francis Parkman tells why. The first part of Pioneers of France in the New World deals with the attempts of the Spanish and the French Huguenots to occupy Florida; the second, with the expeditions of Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain and French colonial endeavors in Canada and Acadia.