Cultured Force: Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire - Hardcover

"Scholarly and yet passionately personal--without in any way drifting from the essential bibliographic and archival moorings. . . . A splendid overall addition to the always growing literature."-- John C. Cairns, University of Toronto "I agree with Singer and Langdon who point out over and over again that the conquerors and the conquered shared in both the benefits and the sacrifices of imperialism. All this makes for a notable work."--William A. Hoisington, Jr., Emeritus Professor of Modern European & French Colonial History, University of Illinois at Chicago "No course in modern French history should be without this book. . . . Drawing on the political-military and political-cultural insights of . . . a new generation of colonial historians emerging in North America and France, the authors give a fresh new reading to the entire enterprise of French colonial history. It is as if the massive silent portraits on the dark walls of the Musee de l'Armee came alive for a while and let their human side be known."--Frederick Quinn, International Journal of African Historical Studies "Vividly written, [Cultured Force] challenges those determined to see nothing beneficial in European colonialism, or, more precisely in the achievements of France's pre-eminent military proconsuls of the past two hundred years. . . . The book is valuable in its attempt to reconstruct the familial backgrounds and circumstantial difficulties that so often shaped the outlook and actions of the individuals studied. . . . Both subtle and well informed."--Martin Thomas, Modern and Contemporary France "Singer and Langdon's book offers informative portraits and interesting psychological profiles of the makers and defenders of the French empire. Easy to read, with helpful summaries of the expansive history of French imperialism, their work is a useful counterpoint to the typically negative depictions of empire."--Richard L. Derderian, Journal of Modern History "No course in modern French history should be without this book. . . . Drawing on the political-military and political-cultural insights of . . . a new generation of colonial historians emerging in North America and France, the authors give a fresh new reading to the entire enterprise of French colonial history. It is as if the massive silent portraits on the dark walls of the Musee de l'Armee came alive for a while and let their human side be known."--Frederick Quinn, International Journal of African Historical Studies "A fascinating set of biographies that explore the military proconsuls who established and maintained France's far-flung colonial empire. This book combines elements of traditional biography, narrative military history, and psychological and intellectual interpretation in a study that offers a good deal more than a mere collective prosopography of some of France's most prominent or 'greatest' imperialists. . . . Scholars of metropolitan and colonial France, military historians, and intellectual historians alike will find that this creative project offers a robust revisionist understanding of colonial proconsuls as cultured, multi-faceted individuals enmeshed in the complex and brutal business of creating, maintaining, and defending the French empire."--Daniel Ringrose, Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction "Singer and Langdon have given us an important and timely book. . . . Important because it broaches a subject of which very little is known in the English-speaking world--and currently somewhat neglected in the Francophone world."--Sir Allan Ramsay, Contemporary Review "Scholarly and yet passionately personal--without in any way drifting from the essential bibliographic and archival moorings. . . . A splendid overall addition to the always growing literature."-- John C. Cairns, University of Toronto "I agree with Singer and Langdon who point out over and over again that the conquerors and the conquered shared in both the benefits and the sacrifices of imperialism. All this makes for a notable work."--William A. Hoisington, Jr., Emeritus Professor of Modern European & French Colonial History, University of Illinois at Chicago "I agree with Singer and Langdon who point out over and over again that the conquerors and the conquered shared in both the benefits and the sacrifices of imperialism. All this makes for a notable work."William A. Hoisington, Jr., Emeritus Professor of Modern European & French Colonial History, University of Illinois at Chicago" "Scholarly and yet passionately personalwithout in any way drifting from the essential bibliographic and archival moorings. . . . A splendid overall addition to the always growing literature." John C. Cairns, University of Toronto" "Scholarly and yet passionately personal--without in any way drifting from the essential bibliographic and archival moorings. . . . A splendid overall addition to the always growing literature."-- John C. Cairns, University of Toronto "Scholarly and yet passionately personal2;without in any way drifting from the essential bibliographic and archival moorings. . . . A splendid overall addition to the always growing literature."2; John C. Cairns, University of Toronto

Bridging the gap between intellectual history/biography and military/colonial history, Barnett Singer and John Langdon provide a revisionist and very readable interpretation of Western and French imperialism and its leading figures from its beginnings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the Fifth Republic. They ask us to rethink and reevaluate modern imperialism, pulling away from the current politically-correct condemnation of it. Instead they argue that "imperialism" came in many forms and figures and that it was not always necessarily a "bad" thing or the "same" thing. In a series of biographical case studies they show that imperialism was not monolithic. They offer what they hope is a more balanced portrait of imperialism and imperialists - demonstrating that it had a paradoxical mix of positive and negative outcomes. The book mixes military and cultural history with a strong bibliography, attractive photos, and an interesting biographical focus.