De Gaulle / Julian Jackson.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: xl, 887 pages, 36 unnumbered pages of plates ; 25 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780674987210
- 0674987217
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Biography | De Gaull C. J13 | Available | 33111009231560 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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 crafting the finest one-volume life of de Gaulle in English, 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
"Masterly...makes for awesome reading...an outstanding biography."
--Max Hastings, Sunday Times
In the early summer of 1940, when France was overrun by German troops, one junior general who had fought in the trenches in Verdun refused to accept defeat. He fled to London, where he took to the radio to address his compatriots back home. "Whatever happens," he said, "the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished." At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered history.
For the rest of the war, de Gaulle insisted he and his Free French movement were the true embodiment of France. Through sheer force of personality he inspired French men and women to risk their lives to resist the Nazi occupation. Sometimes aloof but confident in his leadership, he quarreled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet they knew they would need his help to rebuild a shattered Europe. Thanks to de Gaulle, France was recognized as one of the victorious Allies when Germany was finally defeated. Then, as President of the Fifth Republic, he brought France to the brink of a civil war over his controversial decision to pull out of Algeria. He challenged American hegemony, took France out of NATO, and twice vetoed British entry into the European Community in his pursuit of what he called "a certain idea of France."
Julian Jackson's magnificent biography, the first major reconsideration in over twenty years, captures this titanic figure as never before. Drawing on the extensive resources of the recently opened de Gaulle archives, Jackson reveals the conservative roots of de Gaulle's intellectual formation, sheds new light on his relationship with Churchill, and shows how he confronted riots at home and violent independence movements from the Middle East to Vietnam. No previous biography has so vividly depicted this towering figure whose legacy remains deeply contested.
A definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept the Nazi domination of France, drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and papers in the newly opened de Gaulle archives that show how this volatile man put a broken France back at the center of world affairs. In the early summer of 1940, when France was overrun by German troops, one junior general who had fought in the trenches in Verdun refused to accept defeat. He fled to London, where he took to the radio to address his compatriots back home. "Whatever happens," he said, "the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished." At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered history. For the rest of the war, de Gaulle insisted he and his Free French movement were the true embodiment of France. Sometimes aloof but confident in his leadership, he quarreled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. Through sheer force of personality he inspired French men and women to risk their lives to resist the Nazi occupation. Thanks to de Gaulle, France was recognized as one of the victorious Allies when Germany was finally defeated. Then, as President of the Fifth Republic, de Gaulle brought France to the brink of a civil war over his controversial decision to pull out of Algeria. Julian Jackson's landmark biography, the first major reconsideration in over twenty years, captures this titanic figure as never before.-- Provided by publisher.
Simultaneously published in the United Kingdom as A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part One. De Gaulle before 'De Gaulle', 1890-1940: Beginnings, 1890-1908 -- War: 'A regret that will never leave me', 1908-1918 -- Rebuilding a career, 1919-1932 -- Making a mark, 1932-1939 -- The Battle of France, September 1939-June 1940 -- Part Two. Exile, 1940-1944: Rebellion, 1940 -- Survival, 1941 -- Inventing Gaullism -- On the world stage, September 1941-June 1942 -- Fighting France, July-October 1942 -- Power struggles, November 1942-November 1943 -- Building a state in exile, July 1943-May 1944 -- Liberation, June-August 1944 -- Part Three. In and out of power, 1944-1958: In power, August 1944-May 1945 -- From liberator to saviour, May 1945-December 1946 -- The new messiah, 1947-1955 -- In the 'desert', 1955-1958 -- The 18 Brumaire of Charles de Gaulle, February-June 1958 -- President du conseil, June-December 1958 -- Part Four. Republican monarch, 1959-1965: Algeria: 'This affair which absorbs and paralyses us', 1959-1962 -- Turning point, 1962 -- The pursuit of grandeur, 1958-1963 -- Going global, 1963-1964 -- Modernizing monarch, 1958-1964 -- Half-time, 1965 -- Part Five. Towards the end, 1966-1970: Upsetting the applecart, 1966-1967 -- Diminishing returns -- Revolution, 1968 -- The end, June 1968-November 1970 -- Myth, legacy and achievement.