Julian Jackson – författare

Brought to you by Penguin. In six weeks in 1940, France was over-run by German troops and surrendered. One junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered into history. For the rest of the war, de Gaulle frequently bit the hand that fed him. He insisted on being treated as the true embodiment of France, and quarrelled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. But through sheer force of personality and bloody-mindedness he managed to have France recognised as one of the victorious Allies.For ten years after 1958 he was President of France''s Fifth Republic, which he created and which endures to this day. His pursuit of ''a certain idea of France'' challenged American hegemony, took France out of NATO and twice vetoed British entry into the European Community. His controversial decolonization of Algeria brought France to the brink of civil war and provoked several assassination attempts. Julian Jackson''s magnificent biography reveals this the life of this titanic figure as never before. No previous biography has depicted his paradoxes so vividly. Much of French politics since his death has been about his legacy, and he remains by far the greatest French leader since Napoleon.

In Paris in 1954, a young man named André Baudry founded Arcadie, an organization for “homophiles” that would become the largest of its kind that has ever existed in France, lasting nearly thirty years. In addition to acting as the only public voice for French gays prior to the explosion of radicalism of 1968, Arcadie—with its club and review—was a social and intellectual hub, attracting support from individuals as diverse as Jean Cocteau and Michel Foucault and offering support and solidarity to thousands of isolated individuals. Yet despite its huge importance, Arcadie has largely disappeared from the historical record.

The main cause of this neglect, Julian Jackson explains in Living in Arcadia, is that during the post-Stonewall era of queer activism, Baudry’s organization fell into disfavor, dismissed as conservative, conformist, and closeted. Through extensive archival research and numerous interviews with the reclusive Baudry, Jackson challenges this reductive view, uncovering Arcadie’s pioneering efforts to educate the European public about homosexuality in an era of renewed repression. In the course of relating this absorbing history, Jackson offers a startlingly original account of the history of homosexuality in modern France.

Brought to you by Penguin.Few images more shocked the French population during the Occupation than the photograph of Marshal Philippe Pétain - the great French hero of the First World War - shaking the hand of Hitler on 20 October 1940. In the radio speech after this meeting, Pétain said ''It is I alone who will be judged by History.'' Five years later, in July 1945, the hour of judegment - if not yet the judgement of History - arrived. Pétain was brought before a specially created High Court to answer for his conduct between the signing of the armistice with Germany in June 1940 and the Liberation of France in August 1944.Julian Jackson uses Pétain''s three-week trial as a lens through which to examine the central crisis of twentieth-century French history. As head of the Vichy regime, Pétain became one of France''s most notorious public figures, and the lightening-rod for collective guilt and retribution immediately after the Second World War. In France on Trial Jackson blends politics and personal drama to explore how different national factions sought to try to claim the past, or establish their interpretation of it, as a way of claiming the present and future.©2023 Julian Jackson (P)2023 Penguin Audio

A Telegraph, Spectator, Prospect, and Times Best Book of the Year “This is a story not just about Pétain but about war and resistance, the moral compromises of leadership, and the meaning of France itself.”?Margaret MacMillan “This is a finely tuned history…Those who enjoy tales of the sparring among excellent lawyers arguing an important case will find this book riveting. And for those who want to understand contemporary France and its intricate politics, France on Trial provides…a vibrant analysis of a trial and verdict that remain contentious almost eight decades later.”—Ronald C. Rosbottom, Wall Street Journal “Shows Jackson at his best—precise in detail, vivid in imagery, alert to irony, firm in judgment—and carefully disentangles the questions surrounding the Vichy regime that continue to vex French society.” —Robert O. Paxton, Harper’s In the terrible month of October 1940, few things were more shocking than the sight of Marshal Philippe Pétain—supremely decorated hero of the First World War, now head of the French government—shaking hands with Hitler. Pétain announced that France would henceforth collaborate with Germany. “This is my policy,” he intoned. “My ministers are responsible to me. It is I alone who will be judged by History.”? Five years later, Pétain was put on trial for his conduct during the war. He stood accused of treason, charged with heading a conspiracy to destroy France’s democratic government and collaborating with Nazi Germany.?? Award-winning author Julian Jackson uses Pétain’s three-week trial as a lens through which to examine one of history’s great moral dilemmas. Was the policy of collaboration “four years to erase from our history,” as the prosecution claimed? Or was it, as conservative politicians insist to this day, a sacrifice that placed pragmatism above moral purity? As head of the Vichy regime, Pétain became the lightning rod for collective guilt and retribution. But he has also been an icon of the nationalist right ever since. In France on Trial, Jackson blends courtroom drama, political intrigue, and brilliant narrative history to highlight the hard choices and moral compromises leaders make in times of war.

Machiavellis observation om ledarskapets svåra balansgång är lika relevant i vår tid med förnyade militära, ekonomiska och kulturella konflikter, som den en gång var i 1500-talets Florens. Kinas framväxt, Rysslands attack mot Ukraina och den växande politiska och ekonomiska närvaron i den globala södern har aktualiserat frågan om vikten av kompetent ledarskap inom politiskt styre.

Denna antologi utforskar utmaningarna för ledarskap och statskonst i en allt mer komplex värld och ställer frågan huruvida vi kan skapa politiska eliter som är kapabla att på ett säkert vis vägleda väst genom de många prövningar vi står inför?

Genom att se till vårt förflutna såväl som till vår samtid undersöker världsledande forskare och skribenter hur ledarskapsidéerna har utvecklats genom historien för att ge oss en större förståelse för statskonsten och för vilka färdigheter och organisationer som krävs för att driva små stater, stora imperier och allt däremellan.