Julian Jackson

A prominent historian of France assesses the factors that contributed to FranceÆs humiliating defeat at the hands of the Nazis, using eyewitness accounts, diaries, and memoirs to flesh out this often

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize 2023A Telegraph Book of the YearA Times Spectator and Prospect Book of the YearOne of the great contemporary historians of France on one of the most controversial periods of twentieth century French historyFew images more shocked the French population during the Occupation than the photograph of Marshal Philippe Petain the great French hero of the First World War shaking the hand of Hitler on 20 October 1940 In a radio speech after this meeting Petain told the French people that he was entering down the road of collaboration He ended with the words This is my policy My ministers are responsible to me It is I alone who will be judged by History Five years later in July 1945 the hour of judgement if not yet the judgement of History arrived Petain was brought before a specially created High Court to answer for his conduct between the signing of the armistice with Germany in June 1940 and the Liberation of France in August 1944 Julian Jackson uses Petain s three week trial as a lens through which to examine the central crisis of twentieth century French history the defeat of 1940 the signing of the armistice and Vichy s policy of collaboration what the main prosecutor Mornet called four years to erase from our h

Um retrato vibrante do líder controverso mas incontestável que comandou a resistência à ocupação nazista e salvou a honra da França. Charles de Gaulle ganha aqui sua primeira reconsideração histórica

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize for History the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography the American Library in Paris Award the Franco British Society Literary Prize and the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique du TouquetA 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 TimesIn six weeks in the early summer of 1940 France was over run by German troops and quickly surrendered The French government of Marshal Ptain 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

La "Historia de Europa Oxford", en once volúmenes, es la obra más moderna, amena y solvente que existe para el conocimiento de la historia de Europa desde los antiguos griegos hasta nuestros días. La primera mitad del siglo XX fue una terrible epoca de penalidades para el continente europeo: crisis economicas, politicas y sociales escoltan dos de los peores momentos de la historia de la humanidad: las dos guerras mundiales. Este volumen, penultimo de la serie, nos ofrece un panorama singularmente inteligente y explicativo de esos crueles dias que, al cabo, han marcado los nuestros. En seis capitulos tematicos, un grupo de especialistas de primera fila estudian la politica, la economia, la sociedad, las relaciones internacionales, el imperialismo y la cultura de Europa para ofrecernos un todo integrado que sera obra de referencia durante muchos años.