{"product_id":"the-last-great-frenchman-isbn-9780471117117","title":"The Last Great Frenchman","description":"Critical acclaim for The Last Great Frenchman\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"This is a splendid popular biography . . . recounted with verveand anecdotal warmth, along with fresh appraisals of de Gaulle'scareer as soldier, politician, and head of state.\" --PublishersWeekly.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Highly readable. . . . It is to Williams' credit that he is ableto get so close to such a prickly personality.\" --San FranciscoChronicle\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Charles Williams has matched a great subject by something near toa great book.\" --Daily Telegraph (London)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Marvelous vignettes. . . . Williams tells his story with pace andskill.\" --Martin Gilbert Partial table of contents:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e CHILD.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Parisian Boy from Lille.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Steps of St Ignatius.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e SOLDIER.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Army of the Republic.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A War to End Wars.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Polish Interlude.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Petain's Chicken.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Toe in Political Waters.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Cut of the Sickle.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Is He a New Napoleon?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e EXILE.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laying the Corner Stone.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Afric's Sunny Fountains.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Who is Fighting Whom?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Eagle and the Bear Join the Party.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Resistance on All Fronts.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Mediterranean Storms.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Darlan Deal.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e From Anfa to Algiers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Waiting for Overlord.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e HERO.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Parisian Summer.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Government Must Govern.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e POLITICIAN.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e With Peace Comes Politics.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Gamble that Failed.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e PHILOSOPHER.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Certain Idea of France.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e On Public and Private Life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e HEAD OF STATE.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The New Agenda.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Baiting Uncle Sam.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Ides of May.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Epilogue: Return to Colombey.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Notes.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Select Bibliography.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgements.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Index. CHARLES WILLIAMS (Lord Williams of Elvel) is Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the British House of Lords. Before embarking on his political career he spent four years in Paris from 1966 to 1970, the last period of de Gaulle's government.  THE LAST GREAT FRENCHMAN  \u003cp\u003e\"I am France,\" General Charles de Gaulle announced when he formed the Free French in 1941. It was no idle boast. Following France's rapid capitulation to Nazi forces, de Gaulle alone stood for a France undefeated and still fighting. Through sheer force of will, he made himself heard, rescuing French dignity and insuring that at the end of World War II France would be among the victorious armies, her status as a world power recognized.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt was an immense achievement, one that only a man of de Gaulle's raw nerve, stubbornness, arrogance, and messianic conviction could have accomplished. Though he had virtually no resources and commanded only a few thousand men, he insisted that Britain and America treat France as an equal. His relationship with Churchill was stormy in the extreme but based on a strong mutual admiration; with Roosevelt his relationship was icy. Nonetheless he achieved his goal: France took her place among the Big Five nations in the postwar world. The man who had been sentenced to death as a traitor by the Vichy government returned to France in 1944 a hero and a legend, soon to be elected president.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 1946 de Gaulle shocked the world by resigning. When he stepped back into the political arena twelve years later, it was to once again save a France in crisis. With the adroit maneuvering of a political mastermind he extricated France from Algeria and pulled the country back from the brink of civil war. He barely escaped with his life, surviving numerous assassination attempts by French-Algerians angered by his apparent betrayal. De Gaulle's second presidency lasted ten years until 1968, when student-led revolts toppled his government, but his extraordinary legacy endured in France's most effective constitution since the Revolution, and in international prestige that would have been unthinkable in the previous decade.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCharles de Gaulle died in November 1970, a few days before his eightieth birthday. He was a product of northern French provincial society of the nineteenth century— austere, Catholic, and nationalist—truly the \"last great Frenchman.\" In this fully rounded portrait of one of the twentieth century's most outstanding statesmen, Charles Williams interprets the facts and the motives of his subject with the insights of the distinguished politician he is himself.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCharles Williams's deft analysis opens a window on the enigma at the core of de Gaulle's character—a private man who was affectionate and emotional, a public man who was cold, ruthless, proud, yet undeniably great. The result is a masterful chronicle that takes a fast-paced and defining look at the life and times of one of the twentieth century's most important figures.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePraise for Charles Williams's\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Last Great Frenchman\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"An excellent new biography . . . . Charles Williams has matched a great subject with something near to a great book . . . . A fine portrait of a formidable subject.\" - Daily Telegraph (London)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \"Very well told indeed . . . . Marvelous vignettes . . . . Williams tells his story with pace and skill.\"- Martin Gilbert in The Guardian (London)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47990274654437,"sku":"NP9780471117117","price":57.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780471117117.jpg?v=1761787159","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-last-great-frenchman-isbn-9780471117117","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}