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 It draws on a vast range of published and unpublished memoirs and documents - including the recently opened de Gaulle archives - to show how de Gaulle achieved so much during the War when his resources were so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 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 General de Gaulle s Cold War written by Garret Joseph Martin and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The greatest threat to the Western alliance in the 1960s did not come from an enemy, but from an ally. France, led by its mercurial leader General Charles de Gaulle, launched a global and comprehensive challenge to the United State’s leadership of the Free World, tackling not only the political but also the military, economic, and monetary spheres. Successive American administrations fretted about de Gaulle, whom they viewed as an irresponsible nationalist at best and a threat to their presence in Europe at worst. Based on extensive international research, this book is an original analysis of France’s ambitious grand strategy during the 1960s and why it eventually failed. De Gaulle’s failed attempt to overcome the Cold War order reveals important insights about why the bipolar international system was able to survive for so long, and why the General’s legacy remains significant to current French foreign policy.

Download or read book De Gaulle written by Julian Jackson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-13 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize A New Yorker, Financial Times, Spectator, Times, and Telegraph Book of the Year In this definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept the Nazi domination of France, Julian Jackson captures Charles de Gaulle as never before. Drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and papers from the recently opened de Gaulle archive, he shows how this volatile visionary of staunch faith and conservative beliefs infuriated Churchill, challenged American hegemony, recognized the limitations of colonial ambitions in Algeria and Vietnam, and put a broken France back at the center of world affairs. “With a fluent style and near-total command of existing and newly available sources...Julian Jackson has come closer than anyone before him to demystifying this conservative at war with the status quo, for whom national interests were inseparable from personal honor.” —Richard Norton Smith, Wall Street Journal “A sweeping-yet-concise introduction to the most brilliant, infuriating, and ineffably French of men.” —Ross Douthat, New York Times “Classically composed and authoritative...Jackson writes wonderful political history.” —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker “A remarkable book in which the man widely chosen as the Greatest Frenchman is dissected, intelligently and lucidly, then put together again in an extraordinary fair-minded, highly readable portrait. Throughout, the book tells a thrilling story.” —Antonia Fraser, New Statesman “Makes awesome reading, and is a tribute to the fascination of its subject, and to Jackson’s mastery of it...A triumph, and hugely readable.” —Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Download or read book De Gaulle and Europe written by Andrew Moravcsik and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Modern France written by Vanessa R. Schwartz and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-10-10 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French Revolution, politics and the modern nation -- French and the civilizing mission -- Paris and magnetic appeal -- France stirs up the melting pot -- France hurtles into the future.

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 Napoleon and de Gaulle written by Patrice Gueniffey and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Australian Book Review Best Book of the Year 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 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 De Gaulle written by Michael E. Haskew and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Haskew takes us on a tremendous journey through de Gaulle's pivotal years, his leadership of the resistance, and beyond to understand the man who remade both modern military tactics and global leadership. Charles de Gaulle once stated, "France has no friends, only interests," and it was this strength of mind and love of country that took the region from an occupied territory during World War II to a leader in the Allied cause. Convinced that his personal destiny and that of his beloved country were intertwined, de Gaulle's life's work was dedicated to advancing its preeminence among nations. Even while the country lay prostrate before the Nazis, he maintained the honor of the French people, choosing to resist rather than to collaborate. His presidency was no less visionary; under de Gaulle, France became a nuclear power, granted autonomy to more than a dozen of its former colonial holdings, and maintained an influential presence on the world stage.

Download or read book The Edge of the Sword written by Charles de Gaulle and published by Greenwood Publishing Group. This book was released on 1975-01-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Republic of de Gaulle 1958 1969 written by Serge Berstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republic of De Gaulle offers a comprehensive account - the fullest yet available in English - of the eleven years that followed the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Serge Berstein analyses the new constitutional and political system that emerged under De Gaulle, and shows how France was able to disengage from the ruinous Algerian War. He then conducts a detailed analysis of the socio-economic changes wrought during this period, and discusses the aims of De Gaulle's highly individualistic foreign policy. In the final section Professor Berstein traces the decline of De Gaulle's ascendancy up to his eventual resignation in 1969. In conclusion the author assesses the contribution of a remarkable political leader to the not less remarkable changes that took place in France during his presidency. This volume, lucidly translated by Peter Morris, features all those student aids now associated with the series.

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.

Download or read book The French Resistance written by Olivier Wieviorka and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-25 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and will not go out.” As Charles de Gaulle ended his radio address to the French nation in June 1940, listeners must have felt a surge of patriotism tinged with uncertainty. Who would keep the flame burning through dark years of occupation? At what cost? Olivier Wieviorka presents a comprehensive history of the French Resistance, synthesizing its social, political, and military aspects to offer fresh insights into its operation. Detailing the Resistance from the inside out, he reveals not one organization but many interlocking groups often at odds over goals, methods, and leadership. He debunks lingering myths, including the idea that the Resistance sprang up in response to the exhortations of de Gaulle’s Free French government-in-exile. The Resistance was homegrown, arising from the soil of French civil society. Resisters had to improvise in the fight against the Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy regime. They had no blueprint to follow, but resisters from all walks of life and across the political spectrum formed networks, organizing activities from printing newspapers to rescuing downed airmen to sabotage. Although the Resistance was never strong enough to fight the Germans openly, it provided the Allies invaluable intelligence, sowed havoc behind enemy lines on D-Day, and played a key role in Paris’s liberation. Wieviorka shatters the conventional image of a united resistance with no interest in political power. But setting the record straight does not tarnish the legacy of its fighters, who braved Nazism without blinking.

Download or read book A Certain Idea of France written by Philip H. Gordon and published by . This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As France begins to confront the new challenges of the post-Cold War era, the time has come to examine how French security policy has evolved since Charles de Gaulle set it on an independent course in the 1960s. Philip Gordon shows that the Gaullist model, contrary to widely held beliefs, has lived on--but that its inherent inconsistencies have grown more acute with increasing European unification, the diminishing American military role in Europe, and related strains on French military budgets. The question today is whether the Gaullist legacy will enable a strong and confident France to play a full role in Europe's new security arrangements or whether France, because of its will to independence, is destined to play an isolated, national role. Gordon analyzes military doctrines, strategies, and budgets from the 1960s to the 1990s, and also the evolution of French policy from the early debates about NATO and the European Community to the Persian Gulf War. He reveals how and why Gaullist ideas have for so long influenced French security policy and examines possible new directions for France in an increasingly united but potentially unstable Europe.

Download or read book The French Republic written by Edward G. Berenson and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this invaluable reference work, the world’s foremost authorities on France’s political, social, cultural, and intellectual history explore the history and meaning of the French Republic and the challenges it has faced. Founded in 1792, the French Republic has been defined and redefined by a succession of regimes and institutions, a multiplicity of symbols, and a plurality of meanings, ideas, and values. Although constantly in flux, the Republic has nonetheless produced a set of core ideals and practices fundamental to modern France's political culture and democratic life. Based on the influential Dictionnaire critique de la république, published in France in 2002, The French Republic provides an encyclopedic survey of French republicanism since the Enlightenment. Divided into three sections—Time and History, Principles and Values, and Dilemmas and Debates—The French Republic begins by examining each of France’s five Republics and its two authoritarian interludes, the Second Empire and Vichy. It then offers thematic essays on such topics as Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; laicity; citizenship; the press; immigration; decolonization; anti-Semitism; gender; the family; cultural policy; and the Muslim headscarf debates. Each essay includes a brief guide to further reading. This volume features updated translations of some of the most important essays from the French edition, as well as twenty-two newly commissioned English-language essays, for a total of forty entries. Taken together, they provide a state-of-the art appraisal of French republicanism and its role in shaping contemporary France’s public and private life.

Download or read book The Last Great Frenchman written by Charles Williams and published by Little Brown. This book was released on 1995 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the biography of General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), President of the Fifth Republic of France. A product of Northern French provincial society of the 19th century - austere, catholic and nationalist - de Gaulle was, according to Williams, the last great Frenchman. Whatever the arguments concerning de Gaulle's legacy, in his single-minded devotion to his country, and in his skill and strength in pushing it, there would have been no France if there had been no de Gaulle.