History and Geopolitics All books
Philippe Moreau Desfarges
A History of Peace Ideas for the Future
An original thesis: peace is inescapable (in spite of all the resurgence of wars); it will be contractual and democratic (in spite of the reforming of empires).
Michel Cartier
China and the West A Five-Hundred-Year History
The history of Chinese-Western relations — a tale of fascination and fear — recounted by a historian specialising in the Far East
François Heisbourg
Return of War
Centered on the China-United States-Russia trio, this follow up to Le Temps des prédateurs: La Chine, L’Amérique, la Russie et nous provides essential keys for understanding the world to come.
Jean-François Deniau
The Office of Lost Secrets
La Rochefoucauld once wrote that "neither the sun nor death can be stared at. " The French moralist could have added that truth also can be blinding. Deniau examines several particularly spectacular cases throughout history and under a variety of political regimes, where leaders in the upper echelons of civil and military power have refused to face the truth. He studies major cases in the fields of espionage and international relations, proposing new interpretations of some of these cases, including of the Dreyfus affair. Jean-François Deniau is the author of numerous best-sellers, and a member of the Académie Française.
Nicolas Offenstadt
1914-18 Today The Great War in Contemporary France
A complete history of the “memory” of the Great War in the contemporary mind
Céline Jurgensen, Dominique Mongin
Resistance and Dissuasion The French Nuclear Industry from Its Origins to the Present
The origins of France’s policy of dissuasion: a history that is still widely unknown and little studied. A study of French strategy and defense. The question of nuclear energy and defense is central in current debates.
Marie-Jo Bonnet
What Does a Woman Desire when She Desires a Woman?
The desire of women for their own sex is a subject that has been concealed and heavily censored since Antiquity. Yet it has constantly resurfaced throughout history - despite repression, denial and today's feigned indifference - and its existence is a historical and anthropological fact, whatever the dominant opinion may say. Marie-Jo Bonnet argues that lesbianism transgresses social norms and female stereotypes, and breaks with the phallic model and the restricted social role that is assigned to women even today. She sees lesbian desire as a radical instrument of emancipation and offers an original analysis of the women's liberation movement, of recent discussions about homosexuality and, finally, of the persistence of lesbophobia. Desire, regardless of its subject, is always a unique and complex experience, and Bonnet does not ignore this fact. In an original, wide-ranging study of lesbian love through literature, she delves into the work of such major writers of the past as Marguerite Yourcenar, Violette Leduc, Simone de Beauvoir, Djuna Barnes and, surprisingly, Madame de Sévigné, as well as of more recent writers such as Monique Wittig, Anne Garreta and Christine Angot. The author's thesis is that women's desire for their own sex can serve as a tool to empower them to conquer their own space of creativity and liberation. Marie-Jo Bonnet, a writer and historian, is the author of Les Relations Amoureuses Entre Femmes (XVIe-XXe siècle).
Maurice Duverger
Europe of Men
How is it possible to get many nations, separated by history, culture, political structures, to live together? If the European community functioned well with 6 members, in a mediocre way at 9, and at 12 members with difficulty, beyond, the E.E.C. will be ineffectual and paralyzed. One solution is available: to change the institutions. The author, a former member of the European Parliament, proposes here a new theory of federalism, the only way according to him, to progressively substitute to the power of the technocrats that of the members of Parliament and citizens.
Jean-Louis Flandrin
The Chronical of the Table For a Historical Gastronomy
When the knowledge of the historian is put to the service of the palate, we are presented with a literary-culinary feast! J. Flandrin invites us to his table. His story of taste and culinary originality sheds new light on today s gastronomy. Revived by his pen is a curious world of age-old recipes, stove-top tips, cooking etiquette and table manners which no sweet-toothed reader can resist.
Georges Bensoussan
The Jews of the Arab World The Forbidden Question
A book written by a historian, a recognized specialist in Jewish-Arab relations. A history book that also sheds light on current political stakes and societal issues. The discourse contradicts what is generally heard on the subject, and which provides the historical elements needed for a better understanding of the contemporary situation.
Anne-Marie Lugan Dardigna
Women of Literary Salon Feminism and the Literary Salon: Women in 18th-Century France
In France, the struggle for women’s rights is a very ancient one. In the 17th and 18th centuries it found expression in literary salons led by such famous figures as Madame de Tencin, Madame du Deffant, Madame Geoffrin and later by Madame du Châtelet and Madame d’Epinay.
Louis Crocq
The Psychic Injuries of Great War
After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, France honoured its dead and celebrated the survivors. The victims of physical injuries, including the ‘broken gargoyles’ who had suffered terrible facial disfigurement, were recognised, given medical treatment and pensions — but what happened to those who had suffered mental trauma?
Frédéric Lasserre, Alexandre Brun
The Geopolitics of Water/Sharing Water Water – a source of conflicts
Water: a major geopolitical issue in the twenty-first century. Will it take “water wars” to impose an equitable distribution of resources?
Mustapha Chérif
Abd el-Kader, Apostle of Reconciliation
An important historical figure whose works help us understand contemporary relations between Algeria and France, between East and West
Pierre Grosser
The History of the World is Made in Asia Another vision of the twentieth century
A "de-westernized" story: many episodes that are often overlooked are described here — the Russian civil war in the Far East, the Anglo-Japanese confrontation in Manchuria, the harshness of the Korean War…
Jean-Bernard Raimond
The Choice of Gorbachev
Who is Michel Gorbachev really? Is he communism's gravedigger or simply an apparatchik worried about postponing his disappearance from the political scene? Or is he one of history's free and tragic heroes, who found himself transported in spite of himself by the collapse of the world that had made him powerful? Jean Bernard Raimond is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and served as the Ambassador to France in Moscow.
Simon Serfaty
A new World in need of America
An eminent expert in international affairs offers a reflection on the disorder of the world and on the illusions of the recent past, in an attempt to discern the choices that must be made during the coming years.
Marek Edelman
Unpublished Notebooks from the Warsaw Ghetto
A work enriched with many elements that clarify the text and enable it to enhance the previously known history of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Robert Darnton
Berlin Journal, 1989-90
Robert Darnton was in Germany at the moment when the boundaries of post-war Europe came toppling down. Suddenly, the university professor discovered that History was in the making, and the masses were in motion. This is his personal account of the combined drama and celebration that accompanies every revolution. A professor at Princeton University in the United States, Robert Darnton is a specialist in the history of European culture. He is the author of L'Aventure de l'Encyclopédie, Le Grand Massacre des chats and Edition et Sédition.
Jean-François Bensahel
France and Threatened Sovereignty
What may one hope for from a united Europe? What will be the future of France? Discouraging of both European illusions and those myths of the 1980s, the money-king and the triumphant individual, this work provides an indispensable reflection on how to tackle the difficult years ahead, to avert the explosive risks that weigh heavily on society and restrict the actions of the French State. Jean-François Bensahel, an ex-student of L'Ecole Normale Superior and the Ecole de Mines, holds a graduate degree in mathematics and is a high-level functionary.
Jean-François Sirinelli
Life and Survival of the Fifth Republic An Essay on Political Physiology
A work of reflection on institutions, their strengths, and their weaknesses, and the reason for their endurance.