Bridging gaps between intellectual history, biography, and military/colonial history, Barnett Singer and John Langdon provide a challenging, readable interpretation of French imperialism and some of its leading figures from the early modern era through the Fifth Republic. They ask us to rethink and reevaluate, pulling away from the usual shoal of simplistic condemnation. In a series of finely-etched biographical studies, and with much detail on both imperial culture and wars (including World War I and II), they offer a balanced, deep, strong portrait of key makers and defenders of the French Empire, one that will surely stimulate much historical work in the field.
Bridging gaps between intellectual history, biography, and military/colonial history, Barnett Singer and John Langdon provide a challenging, readable interpretation of French imperialism and some of its leading figures from the early modern era through the Fifth Republic. They ask us to rethink and reevaluate, pulling away from the usual shoal of simplistic condemnation. In a series of finely-etched biographical studies, and with much detail on both imperial culture and wars (including World War I and II), they offer a balanced, deep, strong portrait of key makers and defenders of the French Empire, one that will surely stimulate much historical work in the field.
"No course in modern French history should be without this book. . . . Drawing on the political-military and political-cultural insights of . . . a new generation of colonial historians emerging in North America and France, the authors give a fresh new reading to the entire enterprise of French colonial history. It is as if the massive silent portraits on the dark walls of the Musée de l'Armée came alive for a while and let their human side be known."—Frederick Quinn, International Journal of African Historical Studies
![Cultured Force Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/1/3/4/2_1430741.jpg)