Charles De Research Articles

Kristen Stromberg Childers. Seeking Imperialism’s Embrace: National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean.

In Seeking Imperialism’s Embrace: National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean, Kristen Stromberg Childers responds to a two-pronged question that continues to be debated today in French historical and political studies. Why in 1946 did some French colonies (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Réunion) turn their backs on the possibility of decolonization and opt instead for the status of département and the project of full French citizenship? Was this a pipe dream? Focusing on Martinique and Guadeloupe, Childers offers three explanations for this choice. First, the abolition of slavery by the Second Republic in 1848: the decision to immediately give full citizenship to ex-slaves undeniably linked them and their descendants to the French republican state. Second, the immediate defeat of France in World War II: the installation of a collaborationist government in Vichy put the Caribbean départements under the authority of overtly racist governors. With the help of white ex-colonists’ families (the békés), they repressed violently any political or economic rebellion by impoverished black Antilleans, reinforcing their attachment to the defeated Republic. Third, the role of the United States in 1944: it openly considered controlling these territories, even as they were claimed as a part of Free France by a still fragile Charles De Gaulle. Various békés were receptive to the American proposal. The same could not be said for those whose color would have left them at the mercy of the white supremacy that reigned in the United States.

Sung-Eun Choi. Decolonization and the French of Algeria: Bringing the Settler Colony Home.

Sung-Eun Choi’s Decolonization and the French of Algeria: Bringing the Settler Colony Home is part of a burgeoning field of Anglophone scholarship on the history of Algeria that seeks to understand the local, regional, and transnational impact of one of the most significant struggles to end colonial rule (Jeffrey James Byrne, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order [2016]; Matthew James Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post–Cold War Era [2002]; Darcie Fontaine, Decolonizing Christianity: Religion and the End of Empire in France and Algeria [2016]; Jennifer Johnson, The Battle for Algeria: Sovereignty, Health Care, and Humanitarianism [2016]). Rather than position the nationalists at the center of her study as others have done, Choi’s work examines two understudied groups whose experiences during and after the war shaped France in dramatic and unanticipated ways. The author focuses on the pieds noirs, literally the “black feet,” settlers of European origin who had lived in Algeria dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, and on the harkis, Algerians who fought with the French military between 1954 and 1962. She also demonstrates how President Charles de Gaulle and his administration initially thought little about those groups’ places in post-1962 French society. But, as Choi and others, including Claire Eldridge, Giulia Fabbiano, Yann Scioldo-Zürcher, and Todd Shepard, explain, de Gaulle and the larger French public had to confront the fate of the pieds noirs and the harkis immediately after the war’s end, when close to one million of them fled independent Algeria for the southern shores of France. Moreover, de Gaulle and his government had to reverse their earlier claims that the settlers “would not be able to assimilate in the Metropole,” and search for ways to “now admit they were in fact French” (7).

Marring the Memory: The 1967 Vimy Ridge Commemorations and Canada-France Relations

ABSTRACTCommemorating Canada's legendary April 1917 battle of Vimy Ridge has normally proven an emotive event of national importance, symbolic of shared Canadian and French wartime trials and given mostly to remembrance of Canada's war dead. Since 1936, the ridge has been graced by the massive Canadian National Vimy Memorial, for decades the site of impressive and solemn annual ceremonies. But Canada's 1967 50th anniversary celebrations of the battle – a showpiece of the national centenary celebrations – became mired in controversy. French President General Charles de Gaulle was deeply offended that Canada had invited Prince Philip to the event without consulting Paris. It was a stunning diplomatic blunder, especially since Canada's relations with France already were tense as a result of de Gaulle's tacit support for the cause of Quebec independence. Consequently, an opportunity to commemorate a signal event in Canadian history devolved into a fractious bilateral debate and led to a shocking and much-deplored French boycott of the ceremonies. This article adds to the history of commemoration as foreign policy and argues that the Vimy incident had major consequences on France–Canada relations and played a role in France's growing encouragement of Quebec separatists.

An Allied Anesthetic?: De Preissac's Political Cartoon of Hitler's Surgery

During World War II, the French Resistance used political cartoons while fighting for France's freedom from Nazi domination. Reprinting Jean de Preissac's 1945 political cartoon of Allied leaders operating as Hitler's anesthetist and surgeons, a commemorative postcard was issued on the 20th anniversary of the radio broadcast credited with founding the French Resistance, General Charles de Gaulle's “Appeal of 18 June 1940.”

Znaczenie ciała w duchowości Karola de Foucauld

Autor artykułu bada znaczenie ciała w duchowości błogosławionego Karola de Foucauld. Pokazuje godność ludzkiego ciała stworzonego na obraz i podobieństwo Boga. Ta godność niepomiernie wzrosła dzięki wcieleniu Słowa i całemu dziełu odkupienia. Tekst podkreśla także znaczenie Mistycznego Ciała Chrystusa i Eucharystii w duchowości chrzescijańskiej. Wszystko to stanowi element „cielesnego” doświadczenia Boga, które to doświadczenia wymaga odpowiedniej ascezy.

Which democracy for the European Economic Community? Fernand Dehousse versus Charles de Gaulle*

SUMMARYThis article analyses the political debate that developed within the European Economic Community (EEC) about the so-called Dehousse Convention (1960), the first concrete proposal to elect the European Parliament by universal suffrage. It argues that both supporters and opponents of the Dehousse Convention justified their stance through a blend of domestic experiences and European aspirations. More precisely, the article argues that the Dehousse Convention was deeply rooted in the model of parliamentary democracy which triumphed in Western Europe after the Second World War and that it aimed at favouring the federal evolution of the community; through the introduction of direct elections it would have been possible to strengthen the European Parliament which, eventually, would have turned the EEC into a federation. To fully understand Charles de Gaulle’s rejection of the Dehousse Convention, this article argues that his hostility to the supranational evolution of the community was strengthened by his long-standing criticism of the limits of parliamentary democracy. These two visions clashed and intertwined, shaping the political evolution of the EEC in the following decades.

From Gaullism to Anti-Gaullism: Denis Saurat and the French Cultural Institute in Wartime London

This article explores the case of the French cultural institute in London which found itself at the nexus of Gaullist as well as anti-Gaullist networks during the Second World War. By analysing the support that the institute’s director, Denis Saurat, brought to Charles de Gaulle in the early days of Free France, the article contributes to our understanding of the formation of Free French political thought. This study analyses Saurat’s shifting position in the movement, from being Gaullist to becoming an active partisan of anti-Gaullism. The examination of Saurat’s networks and politics helps to re-appraise further trends of anti-Gaullism caused by leftist views not least regarding the lack of democratic principles that characterized Free France in 1940–2. Finally, Saurat’s anti-Gaullism was also prompted by his refusal to put the French cultural institute in London at the service of de Gaulle and support Free French propagandist, cultural and academic ambitions in the world. Overall this article argues for a reassessment of London-based leftist anti-Gaullism understood not just through issues of personalities and democracy but also through the prism of cultural diplomacy and propaganda.

English

Increasing bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents has become an issue of concern. A major problem of the treatment of infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae using antibiotics is the emergence of Extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae. This study aims to determine the prevalence of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae strains in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and describe their resistance profile to other antibiotics commonly used in the infections treatment. 486 clinical strains of Enterobacteriaceae were obtained from patients attending three health centers in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) from November 2014 to October 2015. Biochemical identification was performed and antibiotics susceptibility test was performed using the disk diffusion method. Data was analyzed with the Excel and ANOVA one-way software GraphPad Prism version 5.01 software. Results revealed occurrence of Escherichia coli (60.9%, 194) predominated followed by Klebsiella spp. (22.4%, 109). Antibiotics susceptibility test revealed that 86.8% strains were resistant to amoxicillin, 81.3% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 61.9% to ceftriaxone, 58.6% to cefotaxime and 58.4% to cefepime. It was observed that 99.8% were susceptible to imipenem while 16.6% were resistant to fosfomycin and 12.3% to amikacin. However, 38.5% (187/486) of the strains were ESBL-producing, 67.9% (127/187) of which came from Yalgado Ouedraogo University Hospital Center, 23.5% (44/187) from Charles De Gaulle Paediatric University Hospital Center and 8.6% (16/187) from Saint Camille Hospital. This study thus showed a high prevalence of Extended-Spectrum Β-Lactamases producing Enterobacteriaceae strains in Ouagadougou (38.5%). It underlined the need for routine detection and systematic reporting of ESBL strains in different health facilities in Burkina Faso, so that measures could be taken to prevent their spread and treatment failures. Key words: Enterobacteriaceae, Extended-Spectrum Beta-lactamases (ESBL), Burkina Faso.

A tale of party primaries and outsider candidates: the 2017 French presidential election

The 2017 French presidential election was astonishing. It returned a candidate, Emmanuel Macron, with no established party political support. This article places the 2017 election in context. It argues that the introduction of primary elections for the system’s main political parties had unintended consequences that helped Macron win the election. It also argues that Macron’s victory was due a more general electoral context that was wary of established parties and elites, that helped populist candidates, and that eventually returned a candidate in a manner that resembled the return to power of Charles de Gaulle in 1958.

Collateral Damage? “Marigold,” Franco–American Relations, and Secret Vietnam Peace Diplomacy, 1966–1967

ABSTRACTThe Vietnam War exacerbated the already tense relationship between Charles de Gaulle and Lyndon B. Johnson; and Franco–American relations reached a nadir in winter 1966–1967 when de Gaulle vetoed a proposed visit to Hanoi by Jean Sainteny, a former colonial official, who Washington had desired to probe North Vietnam’s position. This analysis adds a new wrinkle to the story. Building on research for Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam (2012), the author reveals that French knowledge of only the Polish version of that peace initiative’s failure, fully blaming the Americans, further soured de Gaulle’s view of Johnson’s handling of the war and American sincerity in seeking peace. The analysis also unveils a new dimension of Henry Kissinger’s involvement in Vietnam diplomacy—prior to the Nixon White House—missing from earlier accounts.

The French connection machine

It was the late 1970s. Former French presidents Charles de Gaulle and George Pompidou had recently died. The Arab oil embargo caused energy prices to quadruple for a time. Marseille remained gripped by drug lords. And France had to face the fact that its telephone network was one of the worst in the industrialized world. Fewer than 7 million telephone lines served 47 million French citizens, and the country’s elite felt that the domination of U.S. firms in telephone equipment, computers, databases, and information networks threatened their national sovereignty. Or at least it damaged their cultural pride.

Optimization-Based Design of Departure and Arrival Routes in Terminal Maneuvering Area

The efficient design of departure and arrival routes in the airspace surrounding airports, called the terminal maneuvering area, is crucial for increasing the capacity of such areas, thus alleviating congestion around airports caused by worldwide air traffic growth. In this paper, an efficient method of designing departure and arrival routes in the terminal maneuvering area is proposed, taking into account the configuration of the airport and the nearby environment, as well as related operational constraints, such as obstacle avoidance and route separation. Each route is modeled in three dimensions, and it consists of two components: a curve in the horizontal plane, and a cone in the vertical plane. A branch-and-bound-based approach is developed, for which the branching strategies are tailored to how the obstacles are avoided. Routes are generated sequentially, and each route is initially built in isolation. If the route is found to be in conflict with previously generated routes, it is perturbed locally around the conflict zones. Numerical tests, performed on artificially generated problems and the terminal maneuvering area of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, demonstrate that the proposed method is efficient and could be embedded in a decision-aid tool for procedure design.

A dance teacher for paralysed people? Charles de Coux and the dream of a Christian political economy

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, the emergence of “économie politique chrétienne”, with the aim of founding a new school of political economy, marked the French intellectual landscape. The name of J.-P.A. de Villeneuve-Bargemont is usually cited in this context. But, before Villeneuve-Bargemont, Charles de Coux had launched this approach powerfully. The present paper first states the circumstances of Coux's writings and their specific intellectual context. His project is then analysed, and his critique of political economy, his fundamental idea for an alternative approach, and his description of the logic of an industrial economy are discussed. Finally, the solutions he proposed to eradicate pauperism are examined. A brief statement of the significance of his work and legacy concludes.

Antimicrobial susceptibility of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i> causing urinary tract infections in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Objective: To determine the frequency of extended-spectrum beta lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL) and other antibioticsresistant bacteria in urinary tract isolates.Study Design: prospective and experimental study.Methodology: Place and duration of study :YalgadoOuedraogo University Hospital Center, Charles De Gaulle Pediatric Hospital Center, Saint Camille Hospital and National Public Health Laboratory, Ouagadougou, from November 2014 to October 2015.AllEnterobacteriaceaestrains isolated from urinary samples of patients were identifiedusing API 20E chemical gallery (BioMerieux, France). All strains were subjected to an array of 14 antibiotics to study their drug susceptibility by using Kirby- Baeurdisk diffusion method. Detection of ESBL was carried out by double disk diffusion technique. Statistical analysis was performed by Microsoft Excel and Anova one-way GrapPad Prism version 5.01. Chi-square (χ2) test was used to determine significance. A p˂ 0.05was considered to be statistically significant.Results: A total of 324 isolates of Enterobacteriaceae were identified during the study period, including211(65%) E. coli, 75 (23%)Klebsiella spp., 18 (6%) Enterobacter spp., 11 (3%)Proteus spp., 5 (2%) Citrobacter spp., Serratia spp. 3 (1%).All the clinical isolates were susceptible to imipenem. Resistance to amikacinwas 14% (45/324); gentamicin 54% (175/324); tobramycin 58% (187/324); nalidixic acid 72% (234/324),ciprofloxacin 63% (204/324) and to cotrimoxazole 83% (269/324).The overall rate of the EBSL producing strains was 35% (114/324). Their susceptibility to antibiotics was (imipenem,amikacin, cefoxitin and fosfomycin) 100% (114/114), 93% (106/114), 74% (84/114) and 84% (96/114) respectively. ESBL positivity within individual organism group was highest inEscherichia coli 64% (73/324) followed byKlebsiellaspp. 28% (32/324), Enterobacterspp. 3% (4/324), Proteus spp. and Citrobacterspp. 2% (2/324).Conclusion: The results showeda high frequency of ESBL producing Enterobacteriaceae, especially Escherichia coli and Klebsiellaspp. The data points to theneed of routine detection and surveillance of ESBL producing bacteria in Burkina Faso.Keywords: Antimicrobial susceptibility, Enterobacteriaceae, Urine, Burkina Faso

European democracy deferred: de Gaulle and the Dehousse Plan, 1960

This article examines the first debate within the European Economic Community (EEC) over democracy following the Treaty of Rome. The treaty called for the newly created European Parliament to draw up a proposal for direct, transnational parliamentary elections. A plan in 1960 led by Fernand Dehousse emerged as the consensus choice. Charles de Gaulle, however, opposed the plan and succeeded in defeating it. We see during the1960 debate over the Dehousse Plan competing interpretations of democracy in European unity that still frame the issue today. At stake was the democratic character of the new EEC as well as the proper role of the public in the uniting of Europe. Should the public vote on matters of European integration via transnational parliamentary elections, national referendums or neither? By analytically reconstructing the key participants’ democratic worldviews, the article contributes to developing a deeper understanding of the debate over direct elections to the European Parliament, a fuller comprehension of the early life of the Treaty of Rome and a sharper realisation of the essential interconnectedness of the development of the EEC and the resumption of national democracy in post-WWII Western Europe.

France and the Origins of the United Nations, 1944–1945: “Si La France ne compte plus, qu’on nous le dise”

ABSTRACTDuring their long exile during 1940–1944, various components of the “Free French” were largely kept out of the “Post-War Planning” process that took place in the American State Department. They perceived this absence as a major, and often deliberate, humiliation that made the circumstances of their exile all the more exasperating. Charles de Gaulle was seen by the “Anglo–Saxon” Allies as a figure of dubious worth and usefulness, and Washington’s general tone was to dismiss the exiles as the “so-called Free French.” They were admitted to the decision-making process only slowly and grudgingly, and not until after many of the key decisions about organising the United Nations had been taken. This article shows how that exclusion affected the French leadership, how they reacted, and suggests some lasting results. It also assesses to what extent France had a coherent contribution to the formation of a global international organisation during 1943–1944, and what factors inhibited France properly articulating that contribution.

A Stabilization and Development Dilemma: The United States, Transatlantic Relations, and Southern Europe in the 1960s

During the 1960s Italy and Greece were undergoing rapid economic and social changes that were significant in both their economic and political ramifications. US policy was able to influence the course of events either bilaterally or multilaterally in the context of the Bretton Woods nexus of institutions and procedures. The central argument of this essay is that Washington's policy was formulated under various contradictory considerations. Cardinal among them was the necessity of preserving the basic requirements of the Bretton Woods regime. The stability of currency parities, particularly the safeguarding of the preeminent position of the dollar as an international reserve currency and its credibility against gold, dictated the continuation of orthodox monetary and fiscal policies. Political stability in Italy and Greece as a prop against political radicalization was a strategic consideration that militated against a strict application of a deflationary policy. The development of transatlantic relations with Charles de Gaulle's France posed a problem from an Allied perspective and was a factor that also militated against the strict application of a policy of monetary stability.

Book Review: Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse

Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse. By William Woolfitt. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2016. xii + 77 pp. $20.00 (paper).In the prelude to her magisterial nineteenth-century novel Middle-march, George Eliot describes the life of the Carmelite nun and reformer, St. Theresa of Avila. Eliot writes in the Prelude that Theresa's passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life, but she also concedes that many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far-resonant action. It required a special confluence of circumstances to produce St. Theresa. Dorothea Brooke, Eliot's protagonist and Theresas foil, yearned . . . after some lofty conception of the world. . . . She was enamoured of intensity and greatness, and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects (Book I, chap. 1). Unfortunately, her rashness-coupled with other events beyond Dorotheas control-leads to a poorly chosen marriage and unfulfilled dreams. Dorothea never becomes the great philanthropist that she hoped to be, and her life must be fulfilled by more mundane work. This problem is one of the central concerns of the novel: how is one to live a grace-filled life under graceless circumstances?Somewhere between St. Theresa and Dorothea falls the nineteenthcentury French saint Charles de Foucauld. William Woolfitts new collection, Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse, is an exploration of a holy life that is both remarkable and unremarkable in turn. Ecstatic dreams are juxtaposed with eremitic drudgery, eucharistie awe with pedantic scribbling. It is in this way that Woolfitt portrays a life in which the relationship between the mundane and the numinous is left unresolved.As an attempt to imagine the inner life of a Christian exemplar, Woolfitts collection evokes the biographical poetry of Thom Satterlee (Burning Wyclif) or perhaps even T. S. Eliots classic play, Murder in the Cathedral. Woolfitt selects as his subject matter specific moments from de Foucauld's life: his relationship with his grandfather, the experience of the eucharist that drew de Foucauld back to the church, an apocalyptic vision. Each poem is dated, to allow the reader to locate the specific poem within de Foucauld s life. This makes Woolfitt s project something of an imaginary biography. The persona that Woolfitt-as-poet inhabits likely has more in common with Woolfitt himself than de Foucauld, and yet the timeline Woolfitt describes anchors his character in a very real story. The creative liberties that Woolfitt is able to take, then, are not Woolfitt overstepping himself, but rather Woolfitt being a good iconographer. …

Friendship and the Solitude of Greatness: The Case of Charles de Gaulle

ABSTRACTThe French statesman Charles de Gaulle was, and remains, something of an enigma. A genuinely great man, at first glance, he seems to tower above mere humanity. In studying de Gaulle's biographies and writings, the statesman and military man eclipses the human being without leaving his human bearing wholly behind. De Gaulle himself emphasized the solitude and sadness that accompanied the burden of human greatness. Yet de Gaulle, the self-described “man of character,” “the born protector,” was also a loving husband, a not terribly demanding or severe father, a faithful Christian, and a French patriot. There were profound limits to his solitude and self-sufficiency. His austere magnanimity coincided with moderation, even benevolence. He loved his country, strove for greatness, and sacrificed something of his private happiness for the public good. He was a complex man and soul, and perhaps a conflicted one.

Towards an emotional history of settler decolonisation: De Gaulle, political masculinity and the end of French Algeria 1958–1962

ABSTRACTThis article focuses upon the complex emotional relationship between the settlers and Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle returned to power in May 1958 ostensibly to maintain French Algeria and with the new Fifth Republic many settlers felt emotional and politically secure after four years of conflict. Yet, as de Gaulle’s position shifted in 1959, this article traces the changing emotional landscape of the settlers, examining how they responded to de Gaulle’s pronouncements with a mixture of fear, anxiety and anger. Following this relationship, the article will explore the way in which de Gaulle used television to project a certain image of political masculinity that was rational, detached and objective. In particular, it will foreground how this political masculinity, embodying the higher interests of the French Republic, was seen to stand in opposition to the European settler ‘other’ – irrational, unrealistic, driven by narrow, selfish interests. In conclusion the article will place these findings within the framework of the notion of settler colonialism advanced by Lorenzo Veracini. As such, the article will make a general contribution to the field, opening up a connected and comparative history of the emotional dynamics of other settler colonial societies as well as the decolonisation process in general.