The French empire at War, 1940–1945


Book Description

The French empire at war draws on original research in France and Britain to investigate the history of the divided French empire – the Vichy and the Free French empires – during the Second World War. What emerges is a fascinating story. While it is clear that both the Vichy and Free French colonial authorities were only rarely masters of their own destiny during the war, preservation of limited imperial control served them both in different ways. The Vichy government exploited the empire in an effort to withstand German-Italian pressure for concessions in metropolitan France and it was key to its claim to be more than the mouthpiece of a defeated nation. For Free France too, the empire acquired a political and symbolic importance which far outweighed its material significance to the Gaullist war effort. As the war progressed, the Vichy empire lost ground to that of the Free French, something which has often been attributed to the attraction of the Gaullist mystique and the spirit of resistance in the colonies. In this radical new interpretation, Thomas argues that it was neither of these. The course of the war itself, and the initiatives of the major combatant powers, played the greatest part in the rise of the Gaullist empire and the demise of Vichy colonial control.




The French Empire at War, 1940-1945


Book Description

The French empire at war draws on original research in France and Britain to investigate the history of the divided French empire - the Vichy and the Free French empires - during the Second World War. What emerges is a fascinating story. While it is clear that both the Vichy and Free French colonial authorities were only rarely masters of their own destiny during the war, preservation of limited imperial control served them both in different ways. The Vichy government exploited the empire in an effort to withstand German-Italian pressure for concessions in metropolitan France and it was key to its claim to be more than the mouthpiece of a defeated nation. For Free France too, the empire acquired a political and symbolic importance which far outweighed its material significance to the Gaullist war effort. As the war progressed, the Vichy empire lost ground to that of the Free French, something which has often been attributed to the attraction of the Gaullist mystique and the spirit of resistance in the colonies. In this radical new interpretation, Thomas argues that it was neither of these. The course of the war itself, and the initiatives of the major combatant powers, played the greatest part in the rise of the Gaullist empire and the demise of Vichy colonial control.




The French Empire at War, 1940-45


Book Description

Draws on original research to look at the history of the divided French Empire - the Vichy and Free French Empires - during World War II. The text argues that, although the Vichy and Free French colonial authorities were only rarely masters of their own destiny during the war, preservation of some imperial control helped them both in different ways. The Vichy government used the empire to withstand German-Italian pressure for concessions in metropolitan France and it was key to their claim to be more than the mouthpiece of a defeated nation.




France in the Second World War


Book Description

France in the Second World War is a wide-ranging and clear introduction to French history during the Second World War and its aftermath. It examines the interwar years, the build up to the conflict, the fall of France and the founding of the Vichy regime, as well as collaboration, resistance, everyday life, the Holocaust, liberation and the echoes of the period in contemporary France. Chris Millington addresses the chief topics in separate chapters that synthesise the key points of history and historiography. He also ensures the French Empire is carefully integrated throughout, crucially enabling the global dimensions of France's war to be highlighted and discussed. In addition, Millington provides an online supplement in the form of an 'Instructor's Guide' to help lecturers looking to use the book in their courses, as well as a helpful glossary and an annotated bibliography of English-language sources to guide students to the most relevant works in the area. France in the Second World War provides you with the history and historiography of France and its Empire during their darkest hour.




The French empire between the wars


Book Description

By considering the distinctiveness of the inter-war years as a discrete period of colonial change, this book addresses several larger issues, such as tracing the origins of decolonization in the rise of colonial nationalism, and a re-assessment of the impact of inter-war colonial rebellions in Africa, Syria and Indochina. The book also connects French theories of colonial governance to the lived experience of colonial rule in a period scarred by war and economic dislocation.




The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Volume 1


Book Description

Landmark study of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights that positions it within the African Lives Matter struggle to assert an African identity rather than as simply a human rights document.




The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2, Politics and Ideology


Book Description

War is often described as an extension of politics by violent means. With contributions from twenty-eight eminent historians, Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War examines the relationship between ideology and politics in the war's origins, dynamics and consequences. Part I examines the ideologies of the combatants and shows how the war can be understood as a struggle of words, ideas and values with the rival powers expressing divergent claims to justice and controlling news from the front in order to sustain moral and influence international opinion. Part II looks at politics from the perspective of pre-war and wartime diplomacy as well as examining the way in which neutrals were treated and behaved. The volume concludes by assessing the impact of states, politics and ideology on the fate of individuals as occupied and liberated peoples, collaborators and resistors, and as British and French colonial subjects.




Hostages of Empire


Book Description

Hostages of Empire is a social, cultural, and political history of the colonial prisoners of war.




The Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought


Book Description

"This book is a history of the field of sociology as it existed from the interwar, wartime, and postwar periods in France and its Empire. This does not refer just to sociologists who did some work in the colonies, or occasionally thought about them in their metropolitan work, but a specific field which was constituted to understand and then govern these colonies. The author argues that the re-founding of French sociology during and after World War II - which spawned the likes of Raymond Aron, Jacques Berque, Georges Balandier, and Pierre Bourdieu - occurred within the context of the re-founding of the French empire. Though there was been much discussion of "decolonizing" sociology in the postwar period, the deep history of sociology's connection to French colonialism and empire has been ignored when, the author argues, it is central. The main driver of the expansion of sociology in this period was colonial developmentalism. Sociologists became favored partners of colonial governments, applying their expertise to an array of "social problems," such as de-tribalization, poverty, labor migration, rapid urbanization and the growth of shantytowns, and the decay of traditional families and religious beliefs, and working on "modernizing" solutions. Many sociologists whose careers began in the overseas colonies formulated concepts and theories that quickly entered metropolitan (and then global) sociology, and their origins were forgotten. Steinmetz examines the ways in colonial sociologists differed from the rest of the discipline -in many ways they represented its most dynamic cutting edge-and how their locations may have affected their intellectual agendas and scholarship. He explores the ways in which these sociologists networked and tracks their major intellectual innovations and influence as a group. He also explores the marginalization faced by both sociologists working in the colonies and those born there, while showing the ways in which they were able to overcome them. The specific challenges of colonial sociology-including some very strongly anticolonial colonial sociologists-shaped sociological theory in ways that are still dominant. The book amounts to a historical sociology of French academia all told-with an emphasis on sociology and other human sciences-as well as a collective biography of many of the major figures, many who are continually read and cited to this day"--




Anglo-French Defence Relations Between the Wars


Book Description

This collection of essays reviews the politico-military relationship between Britain and France between the two World Wars. As well as examining the relationship between the two nations' armed services, the book's contributors also analyse key themes in Anglo-French inter-war defence politics - disarmament, intelligence and imperial defence - and joint military, political and economic preparations for a second world war.




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