Mitterrand
  • Published: 14 November 2013
  • ISBN: 9781448191895
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 720
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Mitterrand

A Study in Ambiguity

Formats & editions
EBook
14 Nov 2013
Paperback
2 Jan 2015
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A definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's most glamorous, complicated political figures.

Aesthete, sensualist, bookworm, politician of Machiavellian cunning: François Mitterrand was a man of exceptional gifts and exceptional flaws who, during his fourteen years as President, strove to drag his tradition-bound and change-averse country into the modern world.

As a statesman and as a human being, he was the incarnation of the mercurial, contrarian France which Britain and America find so perennially frustrating. He embodied the ambiguities and the contradictions of a nation whose modern identity is founded on a stubborn refusal to fit into the Anglo-American scheme of things. Yet he changed France more profoundly than any of his recent predecessors, arguably including even his great rival, Charles de Gaulle.

During the war he was both the leader of a resistance movement and decorated for services to the collaborationist regime in Vichy. After flirting with the far Right, he entered parliament with the backing of conservatives and the Catholic Church before becoming the undisputed leader of the Left. As President he brought the French Communists into the government the better to destroy them. And all the while he managed to find time for an extraordinarily complicated private life.

This is a human as much as a political biography, and a captivating portrait of a life that mirrored Mitterrand’s times.
  • Published: 14 November 2013
  • ISBN: 9781448191895
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 720
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Philip Short

Philip Short has written authoritative biographies including Mao: A Life and Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare, following a long career as a foreign correspondent for the BBC in Moscow, Washington and other world capitals.

He spent eight years researching and writing this book, working mainly from sources within Russia, but also in Britain, France, the United States and a dozen other countries.

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Praise for Mitterrand

Short gives an extremely vivid account of the way Mitterrand exercised the office of president

Jonathan Derbyshire, Prospect

An excellent new book... The story of the rebuilding of France after the war in an equally embittered and divided republic

Andrew Adonis, New Statesman

A compelling read for anyone interested in international power politics

Richard Davenport-Hines, Daily Telegraph

[Mitterrand] remains an endlessly fascinating figure, and Philip Short tells the story expertly in this deeply researched and marvellously readable biography

David A. Bell, Guardian

A stunningly detailed investigation of a monumental political character

Robert Collins, Sunday Times

Philip Short, a former Paris correspondent for the BBC, makes excellent use of new interviews with Mitterrand's family to portray a flawed hero described by his own doctor as a mixture of "Machiavelli, Don Corleone, Casanova and the Little Prince".

Sunday Business Post

Well-rounded

Tobias Grey, Spectator

Excellent

Patrick Marnham, Mail on Sunday

I don’t know why this extremely interesting book has not been more noticed… [A] gripping account

Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

A riveting read for anyone interested in political psychology

Matthew Campbell, Sunday Times

The analysis of [Mitterand’s] 14 years in power is masterly and helps balance the jaundiced views of more cynical observers

Patrick Marnham, Spectator

In telling this story…Short successfully gets under Mitterrand’s skin; what made him tick was a mixture of ambition, arrogance and a visceral hatred of any punctuality

Martin Evans, History Today

A perfect example of the ambivalence of French leaders

Dennis Richards, Church Times

A riveting read

Sunday Times

Brilliantly researched and written

Independent

Brilliantly researched and written… [Short] turns up much fascinating material from official archive

Independent

Does full justice to Mitterrand’s life, both political and personal… As fascinating as its subject, and this is high praise

Scotsman

Short…writes lucidly and informatively… This is an excellent biography

Morning Star