Le Mythe Gaullien

"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.’"