A Question of Honour? Scuttling Vichy's Fleet
Why did the whole of Marshal Petain's fleet go to the bottom of Toulon harbour in November 1942? Anthony Clayton uncovers a tale of amour propre in this 50th anniversary account.
France
Algeria: Thirty Years On
Martin Evans looks at the aftermath of the struggle for Algerian independence from France.
Gossip or Chronicler? Versailles and Saint-Simon
Michel Petheram assesses the importance and reliability of a courtier whose 'memoires' offer graphic vignettes of the last days of Louis XIV.
The Fabrication of Louis XIV
Peter Burke looks at how images and the image-makers made the Sun King appear as the larger-than-life 'top ruler' of 17th-century Europe.
Summing Up The Somme
Lions led by donkeys? Britain's most traumatic land offensive of the First World War drew to its conclusion in November 1916. Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior reassess the campaign, the wisdom of its strategy and tactics, and the reputation of its C-in-C, Douglas Haig.
French Resistance and the Algerian War
During the 1950s the Algerian struggle against France and its white settlers for independence inflamed passions and hatreds in both countries – while a small number of French men and women helped the Algerian liberation movement in defiance of their government and the sentiments of the majority. What made them do it?
'Insects of the Hour': Dr Price's 'Revolutions'
Stuart Andrews considers the life and radical milieu of the dissenting preacher whose support first for the American and then the French Revolutions brought him public controversy, and in the case of the latter, triggered Edmund Burke's classic denunciation of 1789.
Napoleon in Russia: Saviour or Anti-Christ?
Janet Hartley discusses the mixed responses of Russia's populations to Napoleon's great gamble on an invasion and the part they played in the eventual French catastrophe.
France, Burgundy and England
'Gaul in three parts' - Charles Giry-Deloison discusses how new scholarship is affecting our view of a fifteenth-century triangle of power and diplomacy in Northern Europe.
Vichy: Pétain’s Hollow Crown
In 1940, Marshal Philippe Pétain took the helm of a humiliated France. While Vichy endured, many took his silence as evidence of grand strategy – a view bolstered by the client press.