Le Mythe Gaullien

Name: Le Mythe Gaullien
Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
ISBN: 2070128512

by Sudhir Hazareesingh

L'image du général de Gaulle a connu d'étranges retournements. L'homme d'État de son vivant le plus contesté est devenu après sa mort le plus incontestable. Celui qui avait si longtemps passé pour le diviseur de la nation est devenu le sauveur de la République, l'incarnation même de la France. L'historien britannique Sudhir Hazareesingh éclaire ici les étapes et les moyens de cette métamorphose en exploitant les riches fonds des Archives nationales et de la Fondation Charles de Gaulle, en particulier l'immense correspondance du Général récemment ouverte. Adossé aux grands précédents de l'histoire de France - Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XIV, Napoléon - , le mythe gaullien se distingue par sa capacité à transcender les clivages.…

Recommended by

Sudhir Hazareesingh

"Well, it all started with Napoleon. I wrote a book called The Legend of Napoleon, which basically was about how the Emperor came to be celebrated as a national hero by the French people after his death. And it led me to see that his celebrity ended, in a way, in the 20th century when de Gaulle replaced Napoleon in the French hit parade of historical figures. And I wanted to explore this idea of how national myths are created. When de Gaulle died there were books of condolence opened all over France and often people would write whole paragraphs about what the General had meant to them, what values he represented. And many of them also said things like: ‘Goodbye Charles. You were greater than Napoleon.’"

Charles de Gaulle’s Place in French Culture · fivebooks.com