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It is widely assumed that the French in the British Isles during the Second World War were fully fledged supporters of General de Gaulle, and that, across the channel at least, the French were a ‘nation of resisters’. This study reveals that most exiles were on British soil by chance rather than by design, and that many were not sure whether to stay. Overlooked by historians, who have concentrated on the ‘Free French’ of de Gaulle, these were the ‘Forgotten French’: refugees swept off the beaches of Dunkirk; servicemen held in camps after the Franco-German armistice; Vichy consular officials left to cater for their compatriots; and a sizeable colonist community based mainly in London. Drawing on little-known archival sources, this study examines the hopes and fears of those communities who were bitterly divided among themselves, some being attracted to Pétain as much as to de Gaulle.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the opponents of Britain's first attempt to join the European Economic Community (EEC) between the announcement of Harold Macmillan's new policy initiative in July 1961 and General de Gaulle's veto of Britain's application for membership in January 1963. In particular, it examines the role of national identity in shaping both the formulation and articulation of arguments put forward by these opponents of Britain's policy. To date, studies of Britain's unsuccessful bid for entry have focused on high political analysis of diplomacy and policy formulation. In most accounts, only passing reference is made to domestic opposition. This book redresses the balance, providing a complete depiction of the opposition movement and a distinctive approach that proceeds from a ‘low-political’ viewpoint. As such, it emphasizes protest and populism of the kind exercised by, among others, Fleet Street crusaders at the Daily Express, pressure groups such as the Anti-Common Market League and Forward Britain Movement, expert pundits like A.J.P. Taylor, Sir Arthur Bryant and William Pickles, as well as constituency activists, independent parliamentary candidates, pamphleteers, letter writers and maverick MPs. In its consideration of a group largely overlooked in previous accounts, the book provides essential insights into the intellectual, structural, populist and nationalist dimensions of early Euroscepticism.
the Chartist demonstrations in Hyde Park. After the collapse of the Second Empire in 1870, he set up an ersatz court at Chislehurst in Kent, where he died in 1873, not so far from Petts Wood, the temporary home of General de Gaulle in autumn 1940. For many years afterwards, the Orpington Museum proudly displayed a copy of de Gaulle’s bill for coal deliveries.7 The upheavals that toppled kings and emperors also uprooted revolutionaries and artists. The political activists Godefroy Cavaignac, Louis Blanc, and Alexandre Ledru-Rollin all took shelter in London, as did
. But other petitions, often written by Muslim women with biros in school exercise books in broken French, were more individualised and reflected the hopes and aspirations of the more educated young Algerian women in the circles. For example, Dalila Benached of Hammam-bou-Hadjar, noted, ‘I am proud to have voted with my Muslim sisters for General de Gaulle’, and was also honoured because she was able to read and write and so able to present the petition on behalf of all those who had ‘signed’ below with a fingerprint: Our European sisters want to help us to live like
This work demonstrates that resistance to occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Second World War has to be seen through a transnational, not a national, lens. It explores how people often resisted outside their country of origin because they were migrants, refugees or exiles who were already on the move. It traces their trajectories and encounters with other resisters and explores their experiences, including changes of beliefs, practices and identities. The book is a powerful, subtle and thought-provoking alternative to works on the Second World War that focus on single countries or on grand strategy. It is a ‘bottom up’ story of extraordinary individuals and groups who resisted oppression from Spain to the Soviet Union and the Balkans. It challenges the standard chronology of the war, beginning with the formation of the International Brigades in Spain and following through to the onset of the Cold War and the foundation of the state of Israel. This is a collective project by a team of international historians led by Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance (Faber & Faber, 2015). These have explored archives across Europe, the USA, Russia and Israel in order to unearth scores of fascinating individual stories which are woven together into themed chapters and a powerful new interpretation. The book is aimed at undergraduates and graduates working on twentieth-century Europe and the Second World War or interested in the possibilities of transnational history.
European Unity, 1945–1999 , second edition ( Basingstoke : Macmillan , 2000 ). 19 Ashton, Irony of Interdependence , pp. 131–133. 20 See TNA/CAB134/1852, ‘The Six and the Seven: Long Term Arrangements’, 25 May 1960. For a discussion see Milward, Rise and Fall , pp. 325–326. 21 CVCE, ‘Press conference given by General de Gaulle (14 January 1963)’. Available online: www.cvce.eu/en/obj/press_conference_held_by_general_de_gaulle_14_january_1963-en-5b5d0d35–4266–49bc-b770-b24826858e1f.html . Last accessed 22 September 2017. On the failure of the application see
, www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_16912.htm (accessed 7 May 2020). 28 Lord Hailey, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston S. Churchill, “The Colonies and the Atlantic Charter,” Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society 30, no. 3–4 (1943): 237. 29 I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot, eds., “Brazzaville Conference,” in The Oxford Companion to World War II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 30 Charles de Gaulle, “Speech Made by General de Gaulle at Opening of Brazzaville Conference” (30 January 1944), www.charles-de-gaulle.org/pages/stock-html/en/the-man/home/speeches/speech-made-by-general-de-gaulle
the French army (Chaffard Vol. 1, 1965: 341). De Gaulle managed to allay these concerns and in Soudan Modibo Keïta called for a ‘yes’ vote in the September 1958 referendum, although on this occasion the army did intercede with the veterans, both directly and through the support network for General De Gaulle.7 These men favoured strong links with France and most of them opposed the US-RDA. Significantly, the only veteran in the leadership, Paul Lalifa Keïta, had been removed from the executive in August 1958 (Campmas 1978: 108). From 1956, Soudanese veterans showed
from his action in the Resistance: patriotism, direct action and secret practices had left a deep mark on him. These experiences led him to give his political and personal commitment to General De Gaulle. In order to remain financially independent, Foccart set up an import-export company, which he entrusted to the care of a very close friend, Robert Rigaud. The income drawn from this company enabled him fully to commit himself to his political battles, which began as early as January 1946 with De Gaulle leaving power just as the Fourth Republic was in the process of
In May 1958, and four years into the Algerian War of Independence, a revolt again appropriated the revolutionary and republican symbolism of the French Revolution by seizing power through a Committee of Public Safety. This book explores why a repressive colonial system that had for over a century maintained the material and intellectual backwardness of Algerian women now turned to an extensive programme of 'emancipation'. After a brief background sketch of the situation of Algerian women during the post-war decade, it discusses the various factors contributed to the emergence of the first significant women's organisations in the main urban centres. It was only after the outbreak of the rebellion in 1954 and the arrival of many hundreds of wives of army officers that the model of female interventionism became dramatically activated. The French military intervention in Algeria during 1954-1962 derived its force from the Orientalist current in European colonialism and also seemed to foreshadow the revival of global Islamophobia after 1979 and the eventual moves to 'liberate' Muslim societies by US-led neo-imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq. For the women of Bordj Okhriss, as throughout Algeria, the French army represented a dangerous and powerful force associated with mass destruction, brutality and rape. The central contradiction facing the mobile socio-medical teams teams was how to gain the trust of Algerian women and to bring them social progress and emancipation when they themselves were part of an army that had destroyed their villages and driven them into refugee camps.