France

There is nothing new in the practice of terrorism through hostage taking. Gregor Dallas traces its roots to the events in Paris during the Spring of 1871 when the city was riven by civil strife.

Roy Macnab examines the ongoing debate on the two Frances of 1940 – epitomized on the one side by Petain and de Gaulle on the other – in the light of an heroic Cavalry stand against the German Blitzkrieg.

Scapegoat or quisling extraordinaire? Douglas Johnson probes the motives and actions of Vichy's chief minister to find insularity and gamesmanship his fatal flaws.

Philip Mansel pays tribute to the Musée Napoleon Premier.

Jeremy Black examines the claim that Louis XV may have used contraception.

Service to the Crown might bring hereditary office and a title for the upwardly mobile of Louis X/V's France, but not acceptance by the traditional 'aristocracy of the sword'. Close scrutiny reveals attempts to incorporate a new breed of noble into an essentially static society.

The hubris of Louis XI's Constable produced his nemesis against a background of incipient French nationalism and a growing royal sense of 'majesty'.

Kenneth Fowler looks at the genius of the 14th-century French courtier and chronicler and how he captured the spirit of his age in a sophisticated and complex narrative.

A rage for Mesmerism gripped society in London at the end of the 18th century, as it had in Paris and Vienna. But it was to be short-lived. The excesses of its devotees soon discredited the 'science' in the eyes of the public and it eventually became a vehicle for unbalanced fringes of society.

Douglas Johnson recounts the life of the infamous French army captain.