France

Between the Revolution of 1830 and the fall of the Second Empire, writes Michael M. Biddiss, Daumier applied his vigorous ironic gifts to the social and political scene.

In France, Fourier's ideas on social and economic reform have been used as weapons in the battles of the co-operative and syndicalist movements. Today, a new attempt is being made to disinter the man and his thought from traditions and myths.

On the eve of the Treaty of Amiens, writes D.G. Chandler, the French Army was eliminated from Egypt, and news of the victory heartened the British public.

After the collapse of France in 1940, writes Geoffrey Warner, “French Parliamentary democracy perished at the hands of a man who had mastered its every art”.

In modern French politics, writes John Terraine, the Army and its champions — “still treading the long road back from Sedan” — have sometimes played a dangerous part.

Guienne and Gascony were lost to the English Crown in 1453. General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall describes how Henry VIII had ambitions to regain them.

A man of letters in the German struggle against Napoleon, writes Douglas Hilt, August Wilhelm von Schlegel had many French connexions and is a renowned translator both of Shakespeare and Sanskrit writings.

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, writes William Verity, the enterprising family of merchant bankers expanded their activities from Frankfurt to London and Paris.

Around the rising of the Paris Commune against the Provisional Government of France many myths have accumulated, writes John Roberts, which in varying versions have influenced all subsequent French politics.

‘The enemy’s resistance was beyond our powers,’ Ludendorff wrote, ‘the German Supreme Command was forced to take the extremely hard decision to abandon the attack on Amiens for good.’ The date was April 5th, 1918. By John Terraine.