https://spencergreenhalgh.com/titles/the-general-charles-de-gaulle-and-the-france-he-saved/recent posts from spencergreenhalgh.comHugoenFri, 05 Jun 2026 12:11:39 -0700https://spencergreenhalgh.com/communities/2026-06-05-after-watching/Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:11:39 -0700https://spencergreenhalgh.com/communities/2026-06-05-after-watching/ <p>After watching several seasons of <em>Un village français</em>, it was inevitable that I would want to learn more about De Gaulle, someone I certainly already knew about, if not at the level I would have liked. At some point, I remembered that I had bought this biography about 15 years ago but never read it, so I pulled the forgotten ebook up on my phone and made my way through.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m going the book credit for being so thorough, and if Fenby is not always as critical as I might have been (his &ldquo;De Gaulle proves the great man theory of history&rdquo; conclusion to the book raised an eyebrow), he does not shy away from the problematic aspects of his life and career. Yet, I was irritated by a lot of small things in the book: inconsistent terminology and translation, a shift in format for day-by-day accounts of particularly important events, that sort of thing. As an academically oriented reader, I also would have preferred a more explicit working of sources into the text, even if I know most readers appreciate the more subtle way it&rsquo;s done.</p>

📚 bookblog: The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/communities/2026-06-05-after-watching/