The General vanishes

Douglas Johnson

• De Gaulle. Vol. I: Le Rebelle, Vol. II: Le Politique by Jean Lacouture
  Seuil, 869 pp, fr 99.00, April 1984, ISBN 2 02 006969 5
• Charles de Gaulle: A Biography by Don Cook
  Secker, 432 pp, £15.00, February 1984, ISBN 0 436 10676 0
• Jean Moulin et le Conseil National de la Résistance
  Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 192 pp, frs 40.00, February 1983, ISBN 2 222 03428 0
• De Gaulle et la nation face aux problèmes de défense 1945-1946
  Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent/Institut Charles-de-Gaulle, 317 pp, frs 110.00, May 1982, ISBN 2 259 01109 8
• De Gaulle by Sam White
  Harrap, 239 pp, £9.95, November 1985, ISBN 0 245 54213 2

An interesting moment has been reached in de Gaulle studies. That the traditional approach has by no means been exhausted is shown by the biography by Don Cook, a journalist on the Los Angeles Times. It is still possible, and some would say still desirable, to write about the General using the same evidence and the same anecdotes that have already been used by scores of other writers. As the music-hall comedian said to his partner who was complaining about their act, ‘it was good enough for my mother and father and it’s good enough for you.’ But with the research organised by such bodies as the Institut Charles-de-Gaulle and the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent bringing together those who knew and who worked with the General and historians with an interest in establishing their own analyses and narratives, we are able to proceed to new assessments both of de Gaulle himself and of those long periods of history with which he was associated. New documents and témoignages have become available, and we are now in a position to look more sceptically at sources, such as the General’s own memoirs, which earlier had demanded almost uncritical acceptance.