The second volume of Jean Lacouture’s acclaimed biography of Charles de Gaulle opens with the creation of the Fourth Republic in the aftermath of World War II and with the election of de Gaulle—the voice of Free France, the savior of the nation in war—as president of France. But the internal contradictions of the new constitution soon forced de Gaulle to resign, leaving France to a succession of short-lived and generally ineffective coalition governments. In 1958, with the outbreak of the bitter colonial war in Algeria, destiny beckoned again. De Gaulle offered himself as a mediator and in short order became president of the Council of Ministers, then president of the Firth Republic.
