"Using the example of the aircraft industry, which takes him like an arrow to the heart of many of the key conflicts in French life between 1936 and 1948, Herrick Chapman has written a penetrating and exceptionally well documented account of the way that France developed her present style of industrial relations, in which the state plays such a central role. No book I know so successfully integrates the history of aviation . . . with the political and social history of France. Both thorough and thoughtful, it is an impressive achievement."--Robert Wohl, University of California, Los Angeles "An unusual, innovative book based on impressive research that throws new light in a major way on twentieth-century French politics and society . . . one of the most interesting and original monographs in modern French history in a long time."--Robert O. Paxton, Columbia University "This is a breakthrough of considerable importance. [Chapman] will become the leading North American, perhaps even English-speaking, historian of contemporary France."--George Ross, Brandeis University

"Using the example of the aircraft industry, which takes him like an arrow to the heart of many of the key conflicts in French life between 1936 and 1948, Herrick Chapman has written a penetrating and exceptionally well documented account of the way that France developed her present style of industrial relations, in which the state plays such a central role. No book I know so successfully integrates the history of aviation . . . with the political and social history of France. Both thorough and thoughtful, it is an impressive achievement."--Robert Wohl, University of California, Los Angeles "An unusual, innovative book based on impressive research that throws new light in a major way on twentieth-century French politics and society . . . one of the most interesting and original monographs in modern French history in a long time."--Robert O. Paxton, Columbia University "This is a breakthrough of considerable importance. [Chapman] will become the leading North American, perhaps even English-speaking, historian of contemporary France."--George Ross, Brandeis University

Alan S. Milward was a renowned historian of contemporary Europe. In addition to his books, as well as articles and chapters in edited books, he also wrote nearly 250 book reviews and review articles, some in French and German, which were published in journals world-wide. Taken together they reveal a remarkable degree of theoretical consistency in his approach to understanding the history of Europe since the French Revolution. This book brings together these previously unexamined pieces of historical analysis in order to trace and shed light on key intellectual debates taking place in the second half of the 20th century. Many of these discussions continue to influence us today, such as the role of Germany in Europe, the economic, social and political foundations of European integration, the European rescue of the nation-state, the reasons for launching the single currency, the conditions for retaining the allegiance of European citizens to the notions of nation and supra-nation, and ultimately the issue of democratic governance in a global environment. In bringing together these reviews and review articles, the book provides an introduction to the main scholarly achievements of Milward, in his own words. Fernando Guirao and Frances M.B. Lynch provide an introduction to the volume, which both guides the reader through many of the academic debates embedded within the text while underlining their contemporary relevance. By introducing and bringing together this hitherto overlooked treasure trove of historical analysis, this book maps a close itinerary of some of the most salient intellectual debates of the second half of the 20th century and beyond. This unique volume will be of great interest to scholars of economic history, European history and historiography.

France has long attracted the attention of many of America's most accomplished historians. The field of French history has been vastly influential in American thought, both within the academy and beyond, regardless of France's standing among U.S. political and cultural elites. Even though other countries, from Britain to China, may have had a greater impact on American history, none has exerted quite the same hold on the American historical imagination, particularly in the post-1945 era. To gain a fresh perspective on this passionate relationship, Laura Lee Downs and Stéphane Gerson commissioned a diverse array of historians to write autobiographical essays in which they explore their intellectual, political, and personal engagements with France and its past. In addition to the essays, Why France? includes a lengthy introduction by the editors and an afterword by one of France's most distinguished historians, Roger Chartier. Taken together, these essays provide a rich and thought-provoking portrait of France, the Franco-American relationship, and a half-century of American intellectual life, viewed through the lens of the best scholarship on France.

For a time, the flying boat was seen as the way of the future. These aircraft, so strange and foreign to the modern mind, once criss-crossed the world and fulfilled essential military roles. In his latest book for Fonthill, Charles Bain looks at the golden age of the flying boat, when these sometimes strange and often beautiful vessels spanned the globe. These vessels-a combination of ship and airplane-found themselves working as patrol aircraft, passenger aircraft, transports, and even as combat aircraft. This volume contains their stories, from memorable aircraft such as the Short Sunderland and Boeing 314 Clipper, to the craft that roamed the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, to forgotten giants from Saunders-Roe and even strange jet fighters that once landed like ducks. It even includes the flying boat that has not let time get in the way of doing its job-the Martin Mars. Each of these aircraft has a story worthy of the telling, and often a memorable role to play in the history of aviation. `High Hulls' delves deeply into a long-vanished part of aviation's golden age.

At the end of World War II, France’s greatest challenge was to repair a civil society torn asunder by Nazi occupation and total war. Recovery required the nation’s complete economic and social transformation. But just what form this “new France” should take remained the burning question at the heart of French political combat until the Algerian War ended, over a decade later. Herrick Chapman charts the course of France’s long reconstruction from 1944 to 1962, offering fresh insights into the ways the expansion of state power, intended to spearhead recovery, produced fierce controversies at home and unintended consequences abroad in France’s crumbling empire. Abetted after Liberation by a new elite of technocratic experts, the burgeoning French state infiltrated areas of economic and social life traditionally free from government intervention. Politicians and intellectuals wrestled with how to reconcile state-directed modernization with the need to renew democratic participation and bolster civil society after years spent under the Nazi and Vichy yokes. But rather than resolving the tension, the conflict between top-down technocrats and grassroots democrats became institutionalized as a way of framing the problems facing Charles de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic. Uniquely among European countries, France pursued domestic recovery while simultaneously fighting full-scale colonial wars. France’s Long Reconstruction shows how the Algerian War led to the further consolidation of state authority and cemented repressive immigration policies that now appear shortsighted and counterproductive.

The author of The Royal Navy and Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 chronicles the global arms race of the 1930s--led by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Stalin and Roosevelt--which he argues directly led to World War II.