De Gaulle’s Legacy

De Gaulle’s Legacy PDF Author: W. Nester
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137483935
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book explores the following: What is the art of power? What is the art of French power? How did Charles de Gaulle understand and assert power, establishing the Fifth Republic and breaking centuries of political instability? How well or poorly have his successors wielded the art of French power to define, defend, or enhance French interests?

De Gaulle’s Legacy

De Gaulle’s Legacy PDF Author: W. Nester
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137483935
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book explores the following: What is the art of power? What is the art of French power? How did Charles de Gaulle understand and assert power, establishing the Fifth Republic and breaking centuries of political instability? How well or poorly have his successors wielded the art of French power to define, defend, or enhance French interests?

A Certain Idea of France

A Certain Idea of France PDF Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1846143527
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 866

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Book Description
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.

Napoleon and de Gaulle

Napoleon and de Gaulle PDF Author: Patrice Gueniffey
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988388
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
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.

De Gaulle

De Gaulle PDF Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988728
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 928

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Book Description
"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.

The General

The General PDF Author: Jonathan Fenby
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1620878054
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 721

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Book Description
This biography of the former president of France describes his life and career fighting for the country that he loved, in the trenches of World War I, against the Nazi threat in World War II and during a decolonization war in Algeria. Original. 10,000 first printing.

Charles de Gaulle's Legacy of Ideas

Charles de Gaulle's Legacy of Ideas PDF Author: Benjamin M. Rowland
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739164546
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
The essays in this volume examine selected national, regional European, and international policies of Charles de Gaulle, giving consideration to their significance in his own time, and today. Not everything de Gaulle did withstands the test of time. Nor, obviously, was everything beyond criticism in his own time. Nonetheless, a main finding, in the words of one essayist, is that de Gaulle had an 'uncanny sense of where history was going' and the skill to position his country accordingly. De Gaulle also stands as a testament to the power of individuals in history, a somewhat unfashionable viewpoint in modern university curriculums. Today, when France's destiny appears increasingly to depend on structures and institutions beyond its national control, including a Europe weakened by the sovereign debt crisis, and a global economic system accountable to no one, it seems timely to reconsider the record of the twentieth century's greatest Frenchman, whose skill at dealing with the problems of his time can inspire today's generation of politicians and statesmen.

In the Shadow of the General

In the Shadow of the General PDF Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195308883
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
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.

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle PDF Author: Charles Cogan
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312128043
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
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.

A Certain Idea of France

A Certain Idea of France PDF Author: Phillip H. Gordon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140082091X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
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.

General de Gaulle's Cold War

General de Gaulle's Cold War PDF Author: Garret Joseph Martin
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782380167
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
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.