- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: I.B.Tauris; annotated edition edition (2 Feb 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1850438005
- ISBN-13: 978-1850438007
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.5 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
522,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Historical Figures > Charles de Gaulle
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.85
Trade in The Almost Impossible Ally: Harold Macmillan and Charles De Gaulle for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.85, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
Product Description
Review
'Reads with the pace and excitement of the best sort of history... [Mangold] balances the lives of two extraordinary men and the destinies of their two countries' -- David Cannadine, Director of the Institute for Historical Research at the University of London. 'Witty and well written, and comical as well as dramatic, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn of Macmillan's dilemmas and de Gaulle's reasons for refusing to admit Britain to the European community' -- Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. 'Mangold has done the subject justice.' - Frank Johnson, The Spectator, 25th February. 'A strangly fascinating book. Part of the fascination of Peter Mangold's well-researched documentary on the Macmillan-de Gaulle relationship is its insight into the minds and characters of both men. This book is as good a biography of de Gaulle as we are likely to get.' -- Geoffrey Goodman, Tribune, 24th March 2006. 'Peter Mangold's absorbing study is admirably fair to towards both primadonnas.'- Kenneth Morgan, The Independent 'The Almost Impossible Ally is a dense diplomatic history, based principally on the records of the two foreign ministries and the memoirs of participants. It demonstrates the triviality of much that passes for statesmanship, and how often events experienced by insiders as epoch-making left little trace outside the diplomatic files.' - TLS 'A fascinating and important book.' - TLS CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 'this study is as much an examination of Anglo-French relation as it is one of these two men.'
Product Description
On 14 January 1963, General de Gaulle (described by the Foreign Office as an 'almost impossible ally') brutally vetoed Britain's first bid to join the Common Market. It was a blow that delayed Britain's entry for a decade and hastened the end of Harold Macmillan's political career. Peter Mangold writes in arresting detail about the fascinating personal duel that shaped high politics and Anglo-French diplomacy. He portrays two of the most complex and skilful leaders of the post-war era, old friends from their association in Algiers during World War II: de Gaulle the dour, lofty moralist obsessed with high notions of France; and Macmillan, the canny, ambitious fixer, always the pragmatist seeking to get things done. As Resident Minister, Allied Forces Headquarters in Algiers in 1943, Macmillan had done much to help de Gaulle, and protect him from Churchill's and Roosevelt's hostility. They next met in 1958, as leaders of their two countries, when Britain and France faced many similar problems ranging from decolonization and their determination to retain national Great Power status to relations with the impetuous Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. But while both seemed anxious to retain their old wartime connection, they were now rivals with very different views of the world. Divided by the Atlantic as much as the Channel, the two leaders disagreed fundamentally over America. De Gaulle sought the leadership of a Europe independent of the United States; the pro-American Macmillan talked of Britain as a 'bridge' between the two sides of the Atlantic. When Macmillan finally sought EEC membership, de Gaulle played on the old alliance to keep the British Prime Minister off guard. Ultimately, Macmillan was outwitted, out-manoeuvred and even, perhaps, outclassed by the General. "The Almost Impossible Ally" is a fascinating story of a friendship turned sour, and of a compelling new episode in the turbulent relations between Britain and France.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Tipasa lies some forty miles west of Algiers along the North African coast. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tipasa lies some forty miles west of Algiers along the North African coast. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Mangold has produced a very informative and engaging account of how the lives and times of these two fascinating political statesman intertwined in the years both during and after WWII. It is generally a fascinating read, and gives a superb account of the many issues and events - nuclear armaments, relations with the US administration, the development of the economic integration process within Europe, and Britain's ill-fated EEC application from 1961-63 - over which the two men both confronted and conversed in sustained bouts of high-level politics. Mangold's researches in the archives are extensive and his command of the source material is assured.
If you like a complex mix of both political and diplomatic history, then this work on two complex and contrasting personalities is highly recommended. It also, with a deft touch, places these two statesman within the wider domestic and international contexts which shaped their respective nations' foreign policy interests and conceptions of their regional or global obligations and commitments. In its own way is also stands as a nuanced and informative treatment of broader Anglo-French relations in this period. As a whole, this book is not too "scholarly" to repel the general reader but for those reading from an academic standpoint the usual scholarly apparatus is provided, with endnotes and a full bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, again reinforcing the impression that the evidence on which this book is based has been handled with great care and attention.
If you like a complex mix of both political and diplomatic history, then this work on two complex and contrasting personalities is highly recommended. It also, with a deft touch, places these two statesman within the wider domestic and international contexts which shaped their respective nations' foreign policy interests and conceptions of their regional or global obligations and commitments. In its own way is also stands as a nuanced and informative treatment of broader Anglo-French relations in this period. As a whole, this book is not too "scholarly" to repel the general reader but for those reading from an academic standpoint the usual scholarly apparatus is provided, with endnotes and a full bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, again reinforcing the impression that the evidence on which this book is based has been handled with great care and attention.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
