An Acceptable Hero
Josephine Baker’s induction into the Pantheon is both a cause for celebration and a prompt to explore France’s progressive values.
France
A Rebel with Every Cause
The extraordinary insurrections of Gustave Paul Cluseret.
Facing the Terror: a Witness to the French Revolution
The recently discovered chronicle of an opinionated, elderly aristocrat provides a vivid portrayal of Paris during the most febrile days of the French Revolution.
Napoleon: Two Centuries of Life after Death
Revolutionary soldier or tyrannical emperor? The question is as pertinent now as when Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on remote Saint Helena in 1821.
The Battle of St Louis
Saint or sinner? Recent demonstrations in the American city of St. Louis are just the latest battle for the legacy of a medieval French king.
The Culinary Enlightenment
The belief that you are what you eat emerged in 19th-century France, where the pleasures of the table were sautéed with philosophy and medicine.
The Wrongful Death of Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture’s lonely death in a French prison cell was not an unfortunate tragedy but a cruel story of betrayal.
The Combat of the Thirty
A chivalric form of planned battle took place on 26 March 1351.
The Rights of France
Since the late 19th century, French politics has provided a testing ground for right-wing populism.
Catherine dei Medici and the French Wars of Religion
For thirty years Queen Mother of France, Catherine dei Medici tried to pursue a middle way through the political and religious problems of the age.