A Certain Idea of France

A Certain Idea of France
Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 866
Release: 2018-06-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1846143527
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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 It draws on a vast range of published and unpublished memoirs and documents - including the recently opened de Gaulle archives - to show how de Gaulle achieved so much during the War when his resources were so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.

A Certain Idea of France

A Certain Idea of France
Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Allen Lane
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: France
ISBN: 9781846143519
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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. .

Charles de Gaulle, the International System, and the Existential Difference

Charles de Gaulle, the International System, and the Existential Difference
Author: Graham O'Dwyer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Existentialism
ISBN: 9781472437556
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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction to the work -- The study of individuals in the context of international relations -- Ghosts, tooth fairies, and the state -- Aim and structure of the book -- Anglo-American academia and de Gaulle's second life -- Notes -- 2. Haunted by history, preoccupied with nations -- The problem with Gaullism -- Soldier, writer, thinker (1890-1939) -- Rebel, politician, statesman (1940-1970) -- Nations in a Bergsonian mould: the centrality of de Gaulle's thought -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 3. Ethno-symbolism and the 'content' of the international system -- Nationalism: three schools of thought -- From Bergsonism to ethno-symbolism -- The value of ethno-symbolism -- Nations, ideologies, and the 'content' of the international system -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 4. Existence preceding essence: The individuality of nationhood -- Existentialism: the philosophy of individualism -- The personification of the ethno-symbolic -- Existence precedes essence -- On becoming -- Resisting the herd -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 5. Nationalism is an existentialism -- France and others in the world -- Abandonment: no master, no God -- Anguish: the condemnation of the national individual -- Despair: 'conquer yourself rather than the world' -- Bad faith and the authenticity of nations -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 6. De Gaulle, political science, and the problem of pessimism -- De Gaulle and Political Science -- From ethno-symbolic existentialism to utopianism -- Silence of the pessimists -- Notes -- Index

De Gaulle

De Gaulle
Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 663
Release: 2018-08-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674988728
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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

De Gaulle and Twentieth-century France

De Gaulle and Twentieth-century France
Author: Hugh Gough
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
Total Pages: 158
Release: 1994-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780340588260
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These ten studies by leading French and British historians examine various aspects of de Gaulle's life and political career.

The General

The General
Author: Jonathan Fenby
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
Total Pages: 721
Release: 2013-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1620878054
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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.

In the Shadow of the General

In the Shadow of the General
Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2012-05-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199938202
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Charles De Gaulle's leadership of the French while in exile during World War II cemented his place in history. In contemporary France, he is the stuff of legend, consistently acclaimed as the nation's pre-eminent historical figure. But paradoxes abound. For one thing, his personal popularity sits oddly with his social origins and professional background. Neither the Army nor the Catholic Church is particularly well-regarded in France today, as they are seen to represent antiquated traditions and values. So why, then, do the French nonetheless identify with, celebrate, and even revere this austere and devout Catholic, 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 come to occupy such a privileged position in the French imagination. Sudhir Hazareesingh's story of how an individual life was 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. Indeed, alongside the tale of de Gaulle's legacy, the author unfolds a much broader narrative: the story of modern France.

De Gaulle

De Gaulle
Author: Julian Jackson
Publisher: Haus Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781904341444
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Accessible and affordable illustrated biography

Charles De Gaulle and the Media

Charles De Gaulle and the Media
Author: Riccardo Brizzi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2017-11-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319656422
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This book explores Charles De Gaulle's use and strict control of television between 1958 and 1969, highlighting the association between charismatic power and television with regards to legitimizing the Gaullist leadership and determining an evolution towards presidentialism during the Fifth Republic. A protagonist of European political history of the twentieth century, Charles de Gaulle was a pioneer in the use of mass media: in the Second World War he had earned the nickname of Général-micro due to his reliance on radio communication; in 1958 he then started an substantive and fruitful use of television, which some of his opponents labelled as ‘telecracy’. From difficult beginnings, where he followed the advice of publicity and communication experts, through his masterful TV appearances during the dramatic moments of the Algerian War, to the presidential campaign of 1965 and the crisis of May 1968, the author paints a compelling fresco of de Gaulle as the first TV leader in contemporary European history. The book will appeal to students and scholars interested in the fields of French politics, political communication and political leadership.

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle
Author: Andrew Knapp
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2020-11-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000215032
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In this new biography, Andrew Knapp concisely dissects each of the major controversies surrounding General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French during the Second World War and President of France from 1959 to 1969. From the beginning of de Gaulle’s military career in 1909 to an analysis of legacies and myths after his death in 1970, this study examines the path by which the French came to honour him as the greatest Frenchman of all time, and as the twentieth century’s pre-eminent world statesman. In each chapter, Knapp analyses de Gaulle’s participation in key events such as the development of France’s resistance against Nazi Germany, the decolonisation of Algeria, the birth of the French Fifth Republic, and the gigantic upheaval of May 1968. Simultaneously, this study questions de Gaulle’s actions and motives throughout his life. By exploring the justification of the contemporary ‘de Gaulle myth’, Knapp concludes by shedding new light on the influence of de Gaulle in the political culture of twenty-first-century France. Through careful analysis of primary sources as well as recent scholarship, this biography is an invaluable source for scholars and students of modern history, the history of France, political institutions, and international relations.