Julian Jackson

'Masterly ... awesome reading ... an outstanding biography' Max Hastings, Sunday Times A life 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 It draws on a vast range of published and unpublished memoirs and documents - including the recently opened de Gaulle archives - to show how de Gaulle achieved so much during the War when his resources were so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 Life of Charles de Gaulle

A Certain Idea of France

De Gaulle (Life&Times series)

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize A 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

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.--

In Paris in 1954, a young man named André Baudry founded Arcadie, an organization for “homophiles” that would become the largest of its kind that has ever existed in France, lasting nearly thirty years. In addition to acting as the only public voice for French gays prior to the explosion of radicalism of 1968, Arcadie—with its club and review—was a social and intellectual hub, attracting support from individuals as diverse as Jean Cocteau and Michel Foucault and offering support and solidarity to thousands of isolated individuals. Yet despite its huge importance, Arcadie has largely disappeared from the historical record. The main cause of this neglect, Julian Jackson explains in Living in Arcadia, is that during the post-Stonewall era of queer activism, Baudry’s organization fell into disfavor, dismissed as conservative, conformist, and closeted. Through extensive archival research and numerous interviews with the reclusive Baudry, Jackson challenges this reductive view, uncovering Arcadie’s pioneering efforts to educate the European public about homosexuality in an era of renewed repression. In the course of relating this absorbing history, Jackson offers a startlingly original account of the history of homosexuality in modern France.

Homosexuality, Politics, and Morality in France from the Liberation to AIDS

Living in Arcadia

This new history of Occupied France explores the myths and realities of four of the most divisive years in French history. -- p.[4] of cover.

The Dark Years, 1940-1944

France

In July 1945, France’s disgraced former head of state was on trial. As head of the Vichy regime, Philippe Pétain was a lightning rod for collective guilt and retribution. But he has also been a conservative icon ever since. Julian Jackson blends courtroom drama and brilliant narrative history to examine one of history’s great moral dilemmas.

The Case of Marshal Pétain

France on Trial

"Don't conform to weak prejudgments, thinking it's necessary to choose one thing or another to barely survive... develop a strong mind and body, find extraordinary courage to go after all your dreams, and believe you were Born to Thrive!" You absolutely can overcome negative stereotypes and be the well-educated cerebral leader with elite career accomplishments, as well as have super athletic skills with an exceptional physique regardless of your race, gender, religion, color, or national origin. Believe you deserve what you desire. You can and you will when you follow the 7 Secrets to a Positive Mindset & Fearless Achievement. You Will Be Inspired With: Unstoppable Confidence And Composure; Laser Sharp Focus; Abundance and Prosperity; While Discovering Your Passions And Purpose; To Include The Right Relationships In Both Your Personal And Professional Life. DEFYING THE ODDS IS ALL IN HOW YOU THINK You Will Never Struggle With Your Kids, Your Parents, Your Finances, Your Job, or Your Relationships Again. Just Getting By Is A Thing Of The Past.

7 Secrets to a Postive Mindset and Fearless Achievement

Born to Thrive

The penultimate volume in the Short Oxford History of Europe series analyses a period dominated by war, economic dislocation, revolution, and counter-revolution. In a set of thematic chapters, Julian Jackson and a leading international team of historians trace the continuities of the period, as well as the major ruptures of two World Wars.

Europe, 1900-1945

This is the first full-length study in English of the Popular Front, the left-wing coalition which emerged in France during the 1930s in response to the threat of fascism and which went on to win the elections of 1936, giving France her first socialist premier, Léon Blum. After a brief narrative history of the Popular Front the book is organised thematically around the main historiographical debates to which the Popular Front has given rise. Among the issues considered are the origins of the strikes of 1936, the reasons for the failure of the Popular Front economic policy, the relationship between culture and politics in France in the 1930s and the causes of France's policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The book views the Popular Front at three levels - as a mass movement, political coalition and government - and argues that it must not be seen just as a narrowly political phenomenon but as a political, social and cultural explosion which attempted to break down the barriers between all areas of human activity in the highly compartmentalised society of France in the 1930s. Even if the Popular Front ultimately failed in this aim it has acquired legendary status in France, and the epilogue to the book briefly examines the 'myth' of the Popular Front from 1936 to the present day.

Defending Democracy, 1934-38

The Popular Front in France

"The finest one-volume life of de Gaulle in English." —Richard Norton Smith, Wall Street Journal In a definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept Nazi domination of France, Julian Jackson captures this titanic figure as never before. Drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and resources of the recently opened de Gaulle archive, he shows how this volatile visionary put a broken France back at the center of world affairs.

Anna-Louise Milne

James S. Williams

An accessible collection of essays about one of the most dramatic moment in France's modern history: the "event" of 1968. Often seen purely as a student revolution, the events of 1968 in fact impacted on almost every aspect of French society – theatre, film, gender relations, sexuality, race and immigration, farmers, workers. This volume of essays, written by young researchers and established scholars from France, Britain and the United States is the only book in English to explore the full diversity of this extraordinary upheaval. It takes us out of Paris to the regions of France, out of the student Latin Quarter into the factories, and shows how the events of 1968 continued to reverberate throughout the next decade, and how their legacy is still highly contested in France today.

Rethinking France's Last Revolution

May 68

Jean Renoir's 1937 film La Grande Illusion is set during the First World War, but its themes of Franco-German conflict, divided loyalties in a time of war and the rise of anti-Semitism made it compelling and controversial viewing. Julian Jackson traces the film's historical context and its reception history.

La Grande Illusion

On 16 May 1940 an emergency meeting of the French High Command was called at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. The German army had broken through the French lines on the River Meuse at Sedan and elsewhere, only five days after launching their attack. Churchill, who had been telephoned by Prime Minister Reynaud the previous evening to be told that the French were beaten, rushed to Paris to meet the French leaders. The mood in the meeting was one of panic and despair; there was talk of evacuating Paris. Churchill asked Gamelin, the French Commander in Chief, 'Where is the strategic reserve?' 'There is none,' replied Gamelin. This exciting book by Julian Jackson, a leading historian of twentieth-century France, charts the breathtakingly rapid events that led to the defeat and surrender of one of the greatest bastions of the Western Allies, and thus to a dramatic new phase of the Second World War. The search for scapegoats for the most humiliating military disaster in French history began almost at once: were miscalculations by military leaders to blame, or was this an indictment of an entire nation? Using eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and diaries, Julian Jackson recreates, in gripping detail, the intense atmosphere and dramatic events of these six weeks in 1940, unravelling the historical evidence to produce a fresh answer to the perennial question of whether the fall of France was inevitable.

The Nazi Invasion of 1940

The Fall of France

The French call them 'the Dark Years'... This definitive new history of Occupied France explores the myths and realities of four of the most divisive years in French history. Taking in ordinary people's experiences of defeat, collaboration, resistance, and liberation, it uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.

Julian Jackson

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