Bridging gaps between intellectual history, biography, and military/colonial history, Barnett Singer and John Langdon provide a challenging, readable interpretation of French imperialism and some of its leading figures from the early modern era through the Fifth Republic. They ask us to rethink and reevaluate, pulling away from the usual shoal of simplistic condemnation. In a series of finely-etched biographical studies, and with much detail on both imperial culture and wars (including World War I and II), they offer a balanced, deep, strong portrait of key makers and defenders of the French Empire, one that will surely stimulate much historical work in the field.

About the Author
Barnett Singer is associate professor of history at Brock University, Ontario, and the author of Modern France: Mind, Politics, Society and Village Notables in Nineteenth-Century France.

John Langdon is professor of history at Le Moyne College. He is the author of July 1914 and coauthor, with Edward H. Judge, of A Hard and Bitter Peace and The Cold War: A History through Documents.

Reviews
No course in modern French history should be without this book.... A fresh new reading to the entire enterprise of French colonial history." - Frederick Quinn, International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Vividly written, [Cultured Force] challenges those determined to see nothing beneficial in European colonialism, or, more precisely in the achievements of France's preeminent military proconsuls of the past two hundred years.... The book is valuable in its attempt to reconstruct the familial backgrounds and circumstantial difficulties that so often shaped the outlook and actions of the individuals studied.... Both subtle and well informed." - Martin Thomas, Modern and Contemporary France



Book Information
ISBN 9780299199043
Author Barnett Singer
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher University of Wisconsin Press
Weight(grams) 663g