History and Geopolitics All books
Mario Polèse, Richard Shearmur, Laurent Terral
French Territorial Equality Paris and the rest of the country
How in less than half a century France restored territorial equilibrium between Paris and the rest of the country
Norbert Rouland
The French State and Pluralism A Political History of Public Institutions from 476 to 1792
Has France become a multicultural society? Are we heading towards a dislocation of French unity, or a more advanced form of democratic life due to this pluralism? Can we invoke the French tradition which has given us several reference points? These are the serious questions which History must confront, and it is the aim of this history of public institutions to do just that. The author shows that the French State has constructed the Nation through a stronger voluntarist policy than found in most other Western European countries. His clear yet detailed style makes this book accessible to a wide readership, both those wishing to know more about the origins of our current political regime, and also to first year students, to whom this work represents a source of valuable information.
Maurice Vaïsse
French Diplomacy Tools and Participants Since 1980
A complete and documented view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of French diplomatic policy. A diplomatic history of the Fifth Republic, from the 1970s to the present.
Jacques Cantier, Éric Jennings
The French Colonial Empire under Vichy
In the 1990s, historians began studying the Vichy government in the French colonial empire. The articles gathered here by Jacques Cantier and Eric Jennings are the outcome of recent exchanges among historians on the subject. The book reflects the writers' various research interests and includes: an examination of the political decision-making process, the composition of governing bodies, the development of institutions to strengthen government control of society, and the reaction of the local population to the new political measures. The editors' purpose is dual. First of all, the colonial mirror serves to elucidate the underlying logic and the workings of the regime that resulted from the French defeat. Secondly, the editors have sought to place the Vichy period into the wider context and more extended time frame of colonial history and decolonisation. They have done this by structuring their analysis of Vichy in the empire into several sections. The first part of the book examines the conditions under which the Vichy government tried to unite the colonial bloc to mainland France. The second part analyses Vichy's authoritarian policies, particularly those that aimed at controlling youth. The large demonstrations that took place in Vichy Algeria in 1941 illustrate the efforts undertaken to showcase the National Revolution in Algeria. The third part studies the different forms of repression exercised by the regime, particularly the conditions governing the application of anti-Semitic legislation in the empire, the stifling of the Masons, and the existence of internment camps in North Africa. The fourth part reveals the tactics used by the European and colonial elites in French West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Française) to preserve their influence. The Vichy legacy is examined in a final section, which provides both an overview of the situation in the empire as a whole and a detailed analysis of the telling example of Madagascar. This is a unique and highly innovative study by eminent historians of a little-known aspect of French colonial history during the Vichy period. Jacques Cantier is a lecturer at the University of Toulouse-Le-Mirail, France. He is the author of L'Algérie sous le régime de Vichy and Jules Roy: l'Honneur d'un rebelle. Eric Jennings is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Vichy in the Tropics.
Michel Pinault
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
This is the first biography of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the founder of French nuclear research and winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935. For many, he represents the political commitment of French intellectuals in the struggle against Fascism in the twentieth century. His life illustrates the transition from traditional science, limited to the world of academia, to Big Science, with major national and international repercussions. Michel Pinault holds an agrégation and a doctorate in history from the University of Paris I.
Christian Sautter
France Reflected in Japan Growth or Decline
Where does the formidable Japanese resistance to unemployment come from? How can their persistence be explained when Japan, like all developed countries, is faced with robotization, technological revolutions and, more recently, competition in the form of young populations in neighboring countries? This should give France pause for thought: as starkly contrasted as these two cultures may seem, France and Japan are sister countries. Thus reflected in the mirror of Japan, France can discover that its decline need not be fatal, and that it is up to France to break with a decrepit conservatism and embrace growth. Christian Sautter is the director of studies at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS).
Jean-François Sirinelli
France in an Age of Major Upheaval 1962-2017
A look at France’s recent history by an historian attempting to define a consistent theme and perhaps also paint a picture of what the future may have in store.
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.
Thierry deMontbrial, Thomas Gomart
France and the National Interest Is France’s foreign policy still guided by our own interests?
Fundamental to the upcoming presidential elections in the context of war in the Middle East and Africa, and of domestic insecurity. The book will be supported and promoted by the IFRI (Institut français de relations internationales).
Patrick Fridenson, Bénédicte Reynaud
France and the Age of Work (1814-2004)
In this history about working hours in France during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the authors present two highly original theses which go against some established ideas. Their first thesis is that the limitation or reduction of labour hours was not a political, social or economic issue but primarily a question of public health. The authors second thesis is that the movement for shorter hours was never a major demand of the trade unions since absenteeism served to regulate working hours but the policy of national and international institutions. This is a history book which responds to an impassioned issue in recent French political events. Patrick Fridenson is a historian. Bénédicte Reynaud is an economist.
Jacques Delors
France and Germany - the Leap Forward
"During the past fifty years, the Franco-German ship has been shaken by numerous storms--although they never seriously halted her forward movement. In our opinion, strengthening the friendship between our two countries and working towards European political union will not lead to the loss of our French and German identities, nor will it dampen their vitality, for there can be no great design unless our national communities are fully alive and strengthened by a sense of social and citizens' cohesion." Jacques Delors
Israël Finkelstein
The Forgotten Biblical Kingdom
One of the world’s greatest archaeologists reveals what the Bible doesn’t tell us.
John Lukacs
Five Days in London: May 1940
The days from 24 to 28 May 1940 significantly altered the course of the history of the past century. When German troops reached the Atlantic coast, the British counterattack resulted in the disaster of Dunkirk. Europe was on its knees. Britain seemed powerless. For several critical days, at 10 Downing Street, the British cabinet debated whether to negotiate or to continue the war against Hitler. And if the war was to be continued, how would it be fought? What hope was left? Lukacs takes us into the crucial unfolding of these five days that changed history. The events described here provide a lesson in courage as much as in politics. John Lukacs is a former professor of history at Chestnut College in Philadelphia.
Antoine Compagnon
The First World War, 1914-18: New Thinkers and Artists Upheavals in Science and in the Arts and Letters
The Great War: ruptures and reconfigurations in society
