Prize-winning historian Robert Gildea shows that how empires did not vanish after 1945 but were constantly reinvented as neo-colonialisms. He shows how postwar immigration from the former colonies provoked racism, segregation and exclusion in metropolitan Britain and France and how imperial nostalgia has bedevilled Britain's relations with Europe.
Focusing on the transformative years in France from 1870 to 1914, this book examines the establishment of a stable republican government amidst political turmoil, including the Dreyfus Affair. It highlights the consolidation of parliamentary rule, the expansion of the French Empire, and military preparations leading to World War I. This updated edition incorporates recent research, providing a comprehensive introduction to this pivotal era in French history.
Prize-winning historian Robert Gildea shows that how empires did not vanish after 1945 but were constantly reinvented as neo-colonialisms. He shows how postwar immigration from the former colonies provoked racism, segregation and exclusion in metropolitan Britain and France and how imperial nostalgia has bedevilled Britain's relations with Europe.
The story of the French Resistance is central to French identity, but it is a story built on myths. Robert Gildea returns to the testimonies of those involved, asking who they were, and what compelled them to take the terrible risks they did, bringing to the fore stories of the women resisters, whom history has neglected.
Nineteenth-century France was renowned for its literature, philosophy, art, poetry and technology. Yet this was also a century of political anarchy and bloodshed, where each generation of the French Revolution's 'children' would experience their own wars, revolutions and terrors. This book explores various aspects of these rapidly changing times.
For over fifty years, the French during World War 2 have been portrayed as being either bold members of the Resistance or craven collaborators. This engaging and provocative study reveals a different story, showing that the truth lies, as it so often does, somewhere in between.
In the fifty years since the end of the Second World War, France has had to deal with the legacy of the German occupation, the effects of the Algerian war and the rise of Islam, and more recently the loss of French domination of Europe following the reunification of Germany. Robert Gildeasets these and other issues within their economic, social, and political context, and focuses upon France's various attempts to recover and establish national greatness, a national identity, and stability in both the economic and political systems of France.
Europe, 1800-1914
Featuring a substantially revised text and an updated bibliography, this is a comprehensive survey of European history from Napoleon Bonaparte to World War I.
A powerful new history of the Great Strike in the miners’ own voices, based on more than 140 interviews with former miners and their families
Gildea suggests that the more people who really understand what good history entails, the more likely history is to triumph over myth. He sees positive signs in public history, citizen historians and community projects, debunking claims that ‘you cannot rewrite history’, arguing that good history that’s attuned to its times must be rewritten.