De Gaulle

By: Julian Jackson

Narrated by: James Adams

"The finest one-volume life of de Gaulle in English." (Richard Norton Smith, The Wall Street Journal)

In a definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept Nazi domination of France, Julian Jackson captures this titanic figure as never before. Drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and resources of the recently opened de Gaulle archive, he reveals how this volatile visionary put a broken France back at the center of world affairs.

©2018 Julian Jackson (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Big man, big book

Very lRge book, yet rarely felt that way. Well written book about a fascinating man.

The characteristics of a great and charismatic leader

DeGaulle’s struggle to make France a power even under the heel of Germany after the invasion of France in World War II is a story studded with anecdotes, passionate arguments, tactics of war and elements of great character, without which France would not have achieved what it did after World War II. The reader was exceptional.

A Masterly Study

This is a long book at 928 pages or 41 hours and 35 minutes in audiobook format. Julian Jackson covers De Gaulle from childhood to death. The book is well written and meticulously researched. I have read a lot of books about World War I, but I do not recall any author mentioning the role De Gaulle played in the Great War. Jackson covers in detail De Gaulle’s role as a lieutenant in the WWI.

Jackson appears to have done a good job in writing an unbiased biography of De Gaulle. The author covers in-depth De Gaulle’s role in World War II. I must admit that when I started reading this book most of my knowledge about De Gaulle was based on my readings by Churchill and Eisenhower. It was good to obtain an unbiased viewpoint of De Gaulle. I learned about his role in WWII and as president of France. I still do not have a high opinion of him. One of his comments I cannot seem to get out of my mind is as follows: “It is not the role of government to obtain proposals or seek consensus but to give orders”. That statement seems to really bother me. I also noted he tried to do away with political parties but was unsuccessful.

I enjoyed the book and learning about De Gaulle and also about the civil war with Algeria that De Gaulle triggered. If you are interested in De Gaulle or French history, you should give the book a try.

Julian Jackson is a British historian. James Adams does a good job narrating the book. I enjoyed his British accent. Adams is a British audiobook narrator who now lives in the United States.

Great biography

De Gaulle is one of the most interesting and strange persons from the 20th century, and doubtless the most important Frenchman in the last two centuries.

This is an excellent book (provided you're the type interesting in 40 hour long biographies) and the reader is the best there is.

A very important history of Degaulle

I confess rhat I knew little of DeGaulle before listening to Jacksom' history. Degaulle remains a complex man of the 19th century who left an indelible imprint on modern France. He is, above all, a portrait of France in the 20th century.

Excellent Source of History

Jackson’s biography provided an unbiased well-documented account of this enigmatic force in 20th Century history.

De Gaulle , Political Life

This is not a biography so much as an examination of De Gaulle's political life and goals. The details of his actions and exertions for France are recounted in detail, from the minor to the momentous. I admit that a lot of the political intrigues and maneuvering seem moot but I suppose may be of interest to someone very interested in what I regard as minutiae.

Commenting only on the reading

It’s so distracting to have a narrator who is so clueless as to much French pronunciation. The producer seems to have assumed that because Mr. Adams has down the difficult French “r,” he was up to the task. He mangles most vowels. He has a wonderful voice and would be fabulous narrating, say, Dickens or Trollope.

DeGaulle was maddening, Jackson’s book is enlightening

Once Paris was liberated, and especially after V-E Day, it turned out that everyone in France was in the Resistance. The truth was much different and far darker, reality that France has never acknowledged in any meaningful way.

Charles DeGaulle, on the other hand, played an honorable role even if he drove Churchill and Roosevelt to distraction. Apart from a number of chapters on obscure French philosophers and novelists, this excellent biography is well worth listening to.

Despite France being an unimportant (yet incredibly insecure) country after World War II, DeGaulle made it a player on the world stage for good and ill. Great material worth listening to and first-rate narration.

Comprehensive with all the drawbacks

This biography is an admirable work of scholarship, but most will find its voluminous details of De Gaulle‘s life tedious.
The author is confident De Gaulle was a great man. Having listened for 41 hours, I am unpersuaded.
The case for the General is that he ”saved France’s honor,” as Mr. Jackson puts it. A fairer epitaph would be that De Gaulle wove a fig leaf behind which the French could crouch for decades and avoid confronting the truth about WWII and the occupation.
The account of the student uprisings in May 1968 is well done. Those days had the General with packed bags, ready for exile.
Ultimately, De Gaulle’s story has a tragic quality. His vision of France was unsuited to its capabilities. As a result, so much of his maneuvering and posturing has the character of shadow boxing.