A Certain Idea of France

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize for History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, the American Library in Paris Award and the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 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 In six weeks in the early summer of 1940, France was over-run by German troops and quickly surrendered. the French government of Marshal Petain 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 Frances 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 Jacksons magnificent biography reveals this the life of this…