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Created in 1827, Editions Perrin has, from its beginnings, catered to a readership of history lovers, researchers and teachers.
An initial specialty was the publication of the speeches of the Académie Française and early works included those of: Tolstoy, Augustin Thierry, François Mauriac and René Grousset.
Today, Perrin is the leading history publisher in France – with a catalogue featuring chronicles and biographies, general syntheses and monographies, memoirs and essays. It offers both highly accessible and more demanding historical works.
The paperback collection « Tempus » was created in 2002 and counts more than 500 titles, it is a rich illustration of Perrin’s editorial span and can be said to constitute the history lover’s ideal library.
FOREIGN RIGHTSRights Director of PerrinRebecca [email protected]+ 33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
www.editions-perrin.fr
ContentsGENERAL HISTORY
6 The Great Duels that made the WorldEDITED BY ALEXIS BRÉZET &
VINCENT TRÉMOLET DE VILLERS
7 A World History of Economic Conflict
ALI LAÏDI
8 Paris the RedRÉMI KAUFFER
9 The Vatican vs. Totalitarianism1917-1989
FRÉDÉRIC LE MOAL
10 The Saga of the Saxe-CoburgsPATRICK WEBER
1ST AND 2ND WORLD WARS14 History of the Resistance in Western Europe
1940-1945OLIVIER WIEVIORKA
15 All You Need to Know About Mein KampfCLAUDE QUETEL
16 1918, Strange VictoryJEAN-YVES LE NAOUR
17 Ordinary HeroesMAURIN PICARD
THE UNITED STATES20 First Ladies
NICOLE BACHARAN & DOMINIQUE SIMONNET
21 American Presidents GEORGES AYACHE
22 The American CenturyPIERRE MELANDRI
RUSSIA26 Russia under the Tsars
EMMANUEL HECHT
27 The Secrets of the KremlinBERNARD LECOMTE
ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL HISTORY
30 Death of the CaesarsJOËL SCHMIDT
31 Expelling the Jews: All the better to reign
JULIETTE SIBON
BIOGRAPHIES34 Napoleon and de Gaulle
PATRICE GUENIFFEY
35 Joseph BonaparteTHIERRY LENTZ
36 ClausewitzBRUNO COLSON
37 GermanicusYANN RIVIÈRE
38 JesusFRANÇOIS TAILLANDIER
39 RasputinALEXANDRE SUMPF
40 The Women of Versailles
ALEXANDRE MARAL
ALBUMS AND OMNIBUS BOOKS44 1917, the Year that Changed the World
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BUISSON
45 JapanMICHAEL LUCKEN
46 The Century of CoronationsJEAN DES CARS
17 Contested HistoryJEAN SÉVILLIA
18 Every Last Secretof the IIIrd Reich
FRANÇOIS KERSAUDY & YANNIS KADARI
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS
GENERAL HISTORY
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The Great Duels that made the World
Edited by Alexis Brézet & Vincent Trémolet de Villers
Two contenders for one position of power.
History, essentially tragic, is often embodied in the clash of two titans: their personal rivalries, running deep and escalating to hatred, are superimposed on their country’s power struggles. Un-der the direction of Alexis Brézet and Vincent Trémolet de Villers, prominent historians and journalists from Le Figaro pool their resources to tell twenty stories that changed history, from ancient times to today.
General
History
October 2016
380 pages
CONTENTS
1. Darius / Alexander: Arnaud Blin
2. Hannibal / Scipio: Eric Treguier
3. Augustus / Cleopatra: Jean-Louis Voisin
4. Philip Augustus / John Lackland: Georges Minois
5. Saladin / Baudouin: Sylvain Gouguenheim
6. The Pope and the Emperor: Gregory VII/Henry IV : Sylvain Gouguenheim
7. Charles V / Francis I: Didier le Fur
8. Henry VIII / Thomas More: Bernard Cottret
9. Philip II / Elizabeth I : Jean-François Solnon
10. Louis XIV / William of Orange: Jean-Christian Petitfils
11. Frederic II / Marie-Theresa: Jean-Paul Bled
12. Napoleon / Alexander I: Thierry Lentz
13. Bismarck / Napoleon III: Arnaud Teyssier
14. William II/ Nicolas II: Jean des Cars
15. Stalin / Trotsky: Rémi Kauffer
16. Churchill / Hitler: François Kersaudy
17. Stalin / Tito: Jean-Christophe Buisson
18. Kennedy / Khrushchev: Georges Ayache
19. Bush / Saddam Hussein: Pierre Razoux
20. Gorbachev / Yeltsin: Bernard Lecomte
PERRIN 2016
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A World History of Economic Conflict
from Prehistory to Today
Ali LaïdiFor the first time, an account of the violence of
economic relations in the world, from the Middle Ages to today.
ALI LAÏDI hosts the Journal de l’Intelligence économique on the TV channel France 24, and is a researcher at the Institute of Inter-national and Strategic Relations (IRIS). To obtain his doctorate in political science, he defended a thesis at the Sorbonne on the economic war in international relations. He teaches at Sciences Po Paris. He has already published several books including Les Etats en guerre économique (States in economic warfare, Seuil, 2010) and Aux sources de la guerre écono-mique. Fondements politiques et philosophiques (The sources of economic conflict. Political and philosophical foundations, Armand Colin, 2012).
The world is at war, an economic war involving States and big busi-ness. Most economists steadfastly refuse to pay any attention to this war. As if competition, god-like, could do no wrong. Yet this is not a nebulous concept or an invention: the economic war is a fact that newspapers report on daily, without revealing its significance: Chinese strategy in Africa, the price of gas used as a weapon by Moscow, American air tankers bidding scandal, global competi-tion for arable land…This book is the first global synthesis on this subject, exposing its stakes and risks.
The book opens with a broad introduction defining the subject and establishing the concept of economic war. The three sections that follow correspond to crucial historical moments that mark tur-ning points in humanity’s trade relations. The structuring of trade around fairs, and the rivalries of the Italian city-states illustrate moments of fierce competition in the Middle Ages. The second part focuses mainly on the great discoveries of the fifteenth cen-tury, notably the Indian Ocean trade route. Finally, the third part traces the great economic battles from the Industrial Revolution to the present: the race for hydrocarbons, the war over patents for electricity, the fierce rivalries of railway giants.
“Economic warfare has long been a taboo subject. A “unitary” academic position on the subject does not exist. But the accu-mulation of measured proof has given birth to a recent educa-tional undertaking. In this task, the chief merit of Ali Laidi is to have reconstituted the historical development of the different phases in the progression of economic warfare throughout the history of human civilizations. He has put into perspective the interest of economic warfare as a concept.”| La Tribune magazine
General
History
September 2016
575 pages
8
Paris the RedRémi Kauffer
From the Commune until today, why and how Paris has harbored so many revolutionaries within its walls.
A journalist and member of the editorial board of the magazine Historia, RÉMI KAUFFER is the author of twenty books including, published by Perrin, Le Siècle des quatre empereurs (The Century of the Four Emperors,2014), licenced in Taiwan, and Histoire mondiale des services secrets de l’Antiquité à nos jours (World History of the Secret Services from Antiquity to the Present)(2015).
Marx, Bakunin, Lenin, and Trotsky; Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Ho Chi Minh; Messali Hajj the father of Algerian nationalism, Pol Pot, the jihadists of Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan: the capi-tal was the city of their apprenticeship, their initiation into poli-tics, conspiracies and terrorism. For some it was the place of their death, natural or not.No less amazing, other foreigners have taken the same Parisian route from revolt to revolution and exile: the Slovak Eugen Fried, Moscow’s eye on the French Communist Party; the Romanian Bo-ris Holban, head of the foreign communist resistance fighters of the Affiche rouge group; Henri Curiel, the Egyptian Third World advocate assassinated in the Latin Quarter in 1978; Carlos, the sinister Venezuelan; Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese terrorist networks; Abu Nidal’s gunmen who struck on the Rue des Rosiers; the Irishmen of Vincennes; the Italian Red Brigades who killed po-licemen on the Avenue Trudaine. And, finally, also revolutionary in their own way, the jihadists of today, born among us but resolu-tely foreign enemies. A gifted narrator and meticulous historian, Rémi Kauffer tells their stories in a series of thrilling chapters.
General
History
October 2016
416 pages
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The Vatican vs. Totalitarianism 1917-1989
Frédéric Le Moal
The Vatican’s stand against the three great totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century.
FRÉDÉRIC LE MOAL, who holds a doctorate in contemporary history and teaches at the mili-tary academy of Saint-Cyr, has published several works including Victor Emmanuel III. Un roi face à Mussolini (A King facing Mussolini) (Perrin, 2015 – rights sold in Italy to LIBRERIA GORIZIANA).
Stalin’s sarcastic remark “The Pope, how many divisions has he got?” is well-known. Much less so, the retort of Pope Pius XII, at the announcement of the death of the Father of Nations: « Now he can see how many divisions we have up there! » Both contain an element of truth: how could the pitiful Swiss Guard have pos-sibly prevented an invasion of the Vatican? In any case, the order to invade was never given.
The originality of this book lies in the study of the battle waged by the Holy See between 1917 and 1991 against the three totalitarian systems that plotted its demise: the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy and the Third Reich. It opens with the little-known pontificate of Benedict XV and ends with that of John Paul II, the pope who came from the communist East. It details the struggles of Pius XI, the caution of Pius XII, and the overtures of John XXIII and Paul VI; it analyzes how the popes have established relationships with very different regimes, from the USSR to the United States, as well as Franco’s Spain and republican France. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 gave the Vatican an extraordinary and lasting prestige. But to get to that point, it had to take several paths, navigate world conflicts, sign agreements with dictatorial regimes while denouncing their ideology, and bargain without compromising itself.
“Slandered for a long time, the merit of the Holy See’s actions regarding Nazism and Communism is restored by a brilliant his-torian.” | Famille Chrétienne magazine
General
History
September 2016
450 pages
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The Saga of the Saxe-CoburgsPatrick Weber
The incarnation of the European monarchy: the ascendants of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain
and King Philippe of Belgium
PATRICK WEBER is an art histo-rian, archaeologist and journalist. After studying history of art and archeology, he began a career in journalism. He has published historical novels and scripted films and comics, while teaching the history of the monarchy at Brus-sels University and giving lectures. Since 2011, he is the royalty cor-respondent for RTL Belgium on TV, radio and the Internet. He lives between Brussels and Paris.
King Leopold I of the Belgians, Queen Victoria of England, Tsar Boris of Bulgaria – all are descended from the same lineage! After the Habsburgs, Romanovs and Bourbons, the Saxe-Coburgs are the last royal family to have profoundly changed the face of the European monarchy. While they are still sitting on the throne in the UK (Elizabeth II) and Belgium (Philippe), they have also spread out, over time, from the duchy of Coburg to Bulgaria by way of Por-tugal and countless dynastic unions.
Since the late nineteenth century, under the impetus of strong personalities like Leopold I and Queen Victoria, the Saxe-Coburgs have embodied the revival of the monarchy in a century of revo-lutions. With weddings, betrayals, legacies and strokes of genius, their turbulent history reads like fiction, filled with contrasting and scintillating characters. Patrick Weber tells their story passio-nately, giving us a new understanding of dynastic Europe. A saga written and structured like a novel!
General
History
November 2016
272 pages
1ST AND 2ND WORLD WARS
History of the Resistance in Western Europe 1940 - 1945
Olivier Wieviorka
For the first time, a trans-national history of the Resistance, by the best historian on the subject.
A member of the Institut universi-taire de France and a professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan, OLIVIER WIEVIORKA is a recognized specialist on the Resistance and World War II. He has devoted several books to these subjects, including a defi-nitive Histoire du Débarquement (History of D-Day, Seuil, 2007)and Histoire de la Résistance (A His-tory of the Resistance, Perrin, 2013 - rights sold to Harvard University Press).
The Resistance in Western Europe has long been considered a national phenomenon that provided a significant contribution, both politically and militarily, to the Nazi defeat. But the “army of shadows” could never have risen without the support of London, first, and then of Washington. National factors thus played a pree-minent part in the birth of the Resistance, while the British and the Americans determined its growth. The time has come to broa-den our perspective beyond the limits of borders to construct a trans-European history of the Resistance.
This is the book’s goal. It aims to understand better the action of the clandestine forces in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Bel-gium, France and Italy between 1940 and 1945, analyzing their interactions and inserting the history of the “shadow soldiers” in the grand scheme of Anglo-American strategy.
This book, based on English, Italian, Belgian and other archives, is certain to become a classic. Olivier Wieviorka gives us a new, in-depth perception of the place and the role of the national resis-tance movements. He illuminates the policies of governments in exile and unveils the importance of finance, logistics, and British and American planning. Along the way, he describes the unique-ness of each country, while establishing the first trans-national history of the Resistance. The book represents a welcome renewal for a historiography always in need of fresh perspective.
1st & 2nd
World Wars
January 2017
480 pages
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What Everyone Needs to Know About Mein Kampf
Claude Quetel
The definitive work on the black Bible of Nazism.
CLAUDE QUÉTEL is the former director of the Caen Memorial and has published several important books on World War II, including La Seconde Guerre mondiale (World War II, Perrin, 2015) and L’impardonable défaite (The unforgivable defeat, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2010). He also edited, with Franz-Olivier Giesbert, the collec-tive work Une journée avec (A Day with), which achieved major public and critical success.
Much has been said about Mein Kampf but how many people really know the book? Perhaps we thought the Bible of Nazism had been consigned to oblivion by now, but a fierce controversy arose in the Autumn of 2015 over the possibility of reissuing it. Many people are against the idea, claiming it would give immoral publicity to Adolf Hitler’s poisonous theories. Others, however, find it absurd to want to prohibit a “first-rate document for understanding World War II.”
This heated debate – coinciding with the infamous work’s entry into the public domain – warranted a historian’s investigation. It covers the genesis and content of the book, as well as its real his-torical impact and its publishing history, full of twists and turns – and evidently continuing today, as Mein Kampf is still selling (quite well) all around the world.
Claude Quételconducts his inquiry by asking ten key questions:
1) Who was Hitler before Mein Kampf?2) Under what circumstances did Mein Kampf come out?3) What does Mein Kampf say?4) Does Mein Kampf announce the future crimes of Nazism?5) Is Mein Kampf the only book written by Hitler?6) How widely distributed was Mein Kampf in Germany?7) Did France ignore Mein Kampf?8) What other countries published Mein Kampf?9) Was Mein Kampf called into question after the war?10) What has become of Mein Kampf until today?
1st & 2nd
World Wars
January 2017
240 pages
PERRIN 2016
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1918, Strange VictoryJean-Yves Le Naour
A stunning final volume!
JEAN-YVES LE NAOUR holds a doctorate in history and specia-lizes in the Great War. He is the author of numerous books on the subject including Les Soldats de la honte (Soldiers of shame) published by Perrin, for which he received the best history book award in 2010 Ouest France/Société Générale.
The outcome of the First World War is known to everyone. And yet, by focusing on the doubts, fears and fumbling moves of its pro-tagonists at the time, Jean-Yves Le Naour recounts a year of sus-pense. With a novelist’s skill, he resurrects the chaotic year that led to a strange Allied victory.
Three times in the spring of 1918 – in March, April and May – the French and British felt close to defeat. They seemed to be reliving September 1914! There was fighting on the Marne and panic in Paris, which was being bombarded. On all fronts, the situation was fraught: Since March 1918, the peace treaty signed with Bolshevik Russia had released 1 million German troops in the west. A race against time began, with a single objective: to hold on. In 1918, nothing was certain and Germany could still win!
Like the previous volumes, this latest installment, based on pre-viously unpublished accounts, reveals what was going on behind the scenes in politics and the military command: the rivalries between Petain, Foch and the British Douglas Haig, the clash of egos that paralyzed the situation to the point of compromising na-tional defense. The new factor, compared to 1914-1917 – the mili-tary was now under the control of Clemenceau and Lloyd George. From one front to the next, Jean-Yves Le Naour takes us all the way to a deceptive victory, in which the joy of peace is overshadowed by the specter of future wars.
1st & 2nd
World Wars
October 2016
416 pages
PERRIN 2016
15
Ordinary HeroesMaurin Picard
Thirteen veterans - French, American, German, English or Polish - of the Second World War tell their story for the first time. The book gives an identity to the mass of anonymous combatants, by depicting the heroic
commitment of men who claim to be ordinary.
Journalist MAURIN PICARD is the New York-based US corres-pondent for the newspaper Le Figaro and an editor of the maga-zine Guerre et Histoire. Multilingual, he has taken an interest for many years in Second World War veterans of all nationa-lities.
The veterans who give their testimony in this book – men who ser-ved in a submarine, a Panzer regiment or a Swordfish squadron – were all actors in a crucial phase of World War II. Included are the Frenchman Léon Gautier, who landed in June 1944 on the Nor-mandy beaches; the American Dutch von Kirk, navigator of the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945; and tank battalion commander Al Irzyke, who led American forces through the Ardennes forest in December 1944.
By reaching out to them over a number of years, Maurin Picard earned the trust of these often uncommunicative heroes, until they agreed to tell him about their experience of the Second World War. He then inserted these eyewitness accounts into the descrip-tion of each military operation, in order to provide context and go beyond the limits of the personal point of view. While revealing the diversity of situations, these stories dramatically illustrate the role men played in this technological war.
“They were American, French, English and they never imagined that one day they would be called upon to be heroes. In fact, how does heroism come to be ? Where does it come from ? A lesson in history and a fascinating adventure.” | Point de vue magazine
September 2016
350 pages
1st & 2nd
World Wars
THE UNITED STATES
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First LadiesNicole Bacharan
& Dominique Simonnet
How through American History, First Ladies have influenced presidential power, and even usurped it.
NICOLE BACHARAN is a his-torian, political commentator, consultant for television and radio, and the author of numerous books about the United States.
Author and journalist DOMINIQUE SIMONNET is the former editor-in-chief of the magazine L’Express. She has written some 20 novels and essays.
Together, they have written two books published by Perrin that were major hits with critics and readers: Les Secrets de la Maison Blanche (Secrets of the White House, Perrin, 2014) and 11-Sep-tembre, le jour du chaos (9/11, day of chaos, Perrin, 2011).
At first absent from the official portraits or relegated to the side-lines, they have emerged from the shadows to take their place alongside their president husbands, and then advanced to the front of the stage. For two and a half centuries, the First Ladies, flamboyant or retiring, have embodied the long march of women towards equality and power. The authors have tapped into the best American sources, enhanced by numerous interviews and consi-derable delving into presidential archives, to portray the most em-blematic First Ladies and reveal their real influence.
Here are, among others, Martha Washington, “founding mother” who forged the symbols of a nation in limbo; feminist Abigail Adams, getting involved in war and peace; the beautiful Dolley Madison, standing firm in the capital in flames, and the young Harriet Lane, niece of a bachelor President, who played the stand-in for his spouse. We get to know the ambitious Mary Lincoln, who acts like an empress; Eleanor Roosevelt, the tireless activist; Jackie Kennedy, the global star; Lady Bird Johnson, an ecologist before her time; Nancy Reagan, the loving wife with an iron hand; Michelle Obama, the ideal partner; and the ambitious, unsinkable Hillary Clinton… Fourteen exceptional women.
A groundbreaking book, at the crossroads of history and current events, written with the talent and thoroughness that made the authors’ previous book on the “Last Secrets of the White House” such a success.
The United
States
September 2016
505 pages
PERRIN 2016
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American Presidents from Washington to Obama
Georges Ayache
From Washington to Obama, a presidential saga! In its diversity, the history of the American presidents
exemplifies that of America as a whole, with its qualities and its excesses.
Former diplomat, historian and university professor GEORGES AYACHE is an expert on inter-national affairs. Now a lawyer, he has written several books of contemporary history. Fascinated by American post-war politics, he has already produced a text on the United States in the 1960s, Une histoire américaine (An Ameri-can story) (Ed. Choiseul, 2010). He also authored Kennedy-Nixon: les meilleurs ennemis (Kennedy-Nixon: best enemies) (Perrin,2012) and Sinatra (Perrin,2014).
The White House in 2016 has known a succession of forty-four presidents. From George Washington, inaugurated in April 1789 before the federal capital that would bear his name was even built, to Barack Obama, first African-American to be elected, the presi-dency of the United States has been held by a wide variety of indi-viduals.
Well-educated like Wilson, lacking an academic degree like Tru-man, or else self-taught as was Lincoln; ordinary citizens raised in log cabins or well-born aristocrats; soldiers, lawyers and engi-neers; authoritarian extraverts with strong personalities, or bland indecisive types. Born leaders with all the presidential qualities, or unlikely candidates with random skills, elected by chance.An assortment of different personalities, with different destinies. Four presidents assassinated, from Lincoln to Kennedy; others who ended their lives in near poverty, like Grant. One who stepped down, Nixon. Another, Ford, who occupied the White House wit-hout being elected president or even vice-president. One-term pre-sidents, rejected by the voters, and others who went on to serve a second term. William Harrison’s presidency lasted only one mon-th, but Roosevelt’s longer than twelve years. Four Nobel prizes, and initials that would outlive their era: TR, FDR, JFK.
“Today, incontestable and uncontested, the influence of the Pre-sident of the United States was less so in the early days of the na-tion. Who were the 44 Presidents ? Admired or forgotten, what were their achievements ? In a lively style, the author gives us a history of the American dream through its leaders. This very complete work contains an annotated glossary, and a helpful bibliography and filmography.” | Historia magazine
The United
States
August 2016
474 pages
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The American CenturyPierre Melandri
Why the 20th Century was American.
A historian and specialist on inter-national relations and the United States, PIERRE MELANDRI is a professor emeritus at Sciences Po Paris. He chaired the Institut
d’histoire des relations interna-
tionales contemporaines (History of contemporary international relations Institute) and co-directed, with Serge Ricard, the American foreign policy observatory at the University of Paris III-Sorbonne.
On 17 February 1941, in an editorial in Life magazine, the media magnate Henry Luce called on his fellow citizens to make the twentieth century the «American Century.» In his view, their duty was not only to put the world under America’s aegis, in the same way the nineteenth century had been a «British» century. No, the Americans could no longer simply sell cultural and industrial pro-ducts. Their destiny was to transform the world by spreading their ideals: « a love of freedom, a feeling for equality of opportunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also cooperation», and « the great principles of Western civilization, » « justice, love of truth, the ideal of charity. »
Pierre Melandri tells this story masterfully, weaving together political, economic, military and cultural history. The US «hyper-power» is multiple, innovative and dominant in all domains, from the New Deal to the last computer revolution. And along the way, we get the aircraft carrier, high finance, the H-bomb, Coca Cola, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll ... Yet this model plunged into crisis starting in the 1970s under the combined effect of Watergate and the Viet-nam debacle.
The author stresses that the idea of the eternal “American decline” must be relativized and measured against the country’s continued and undisputed domination.
October 2016
672 pages
The United
States
MEDIEVAL HISTORY
MEDIEVAL HISTORYRUSSIA
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Russia under the Tsarsfrom Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin
Edited by Emmanuel Hecht
Absolute power as the key to Russian history.
EMMANUEL HECHT, historian and journalist, has already edited the two previous books of essays produced with the magazine L’Express : Les derniers jours des dictateurs (The dictators’ last days) with Diane Ducret (Perrin, 2012) and Le siècle de sang (Century of blood) with Pierre Servent (Perrin, 2014).
Russia? “Autocracy tempered by assassination”, is the witticism attributed to Astolphe de Custine, author of “Russia in 1839”. Ex-cept that absolute power was perpetuated under Communism and more than a trace of it can still be found today in Putin’s Russia.However, any reformer not wielding an iron fist has failed, like Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Hence the title of this prestigious collective work, bringing together the best historians and journalists from the magazine L’Express. In a series of lively and historically accurate essays, based on the most reliable sources, it depicts the personalities and actions of the eighteen iconic leaders of Russia and the USSR, from the aptly-named Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin.
Russia August 2016
418 pages
CONTENTS
1. Foreword by Emmanuel Hecht
2. Ivan the Terrible, by Jean-Pierre Arrignon.
3. Peter the Great, by Thierry Sarmant.
4. 18th Century Tsarinas, by Philippe Delorme.
5. Catherine II, by Hélène Carrère d’Encausse (Permanent Secretary of the Académie Française).
6. Paul I, by Thierry Lentz.
7. Alexander I, by Marie-Pierre Rey.
8. Nicolas I, by Marie-Pierre Rey
9. Alexander II, by Stéphanie Burgaud
10. Alexander III, by Lorraine de Meaux
11. Nicolas II, by Jean des Cars
12. Kerensky, by Jean-Christophe Buisson
13. Lenin, by Alexandre Sumpf
14. Stalin, by Nicolas Werth
15. Khrushchev, by Emmanuel Hecht
16. Brezhnev, by Philippe Comte
17. Gorbachev, by Bernard Lecomte
18. Yeltsin, by Irina Federovski
19. Putin, by Christian Makarian.
“The book is enlightening, flirts sometimes with provocation and does not omit the Tsarinas. Conspiracies, plots and assas-sinations make these novelistic pages a chronicle worthy of the Game of Thrones.” | Historia magazine
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The Secrets of the Kremlin
Bernard Lecomte
So much drama, so many secrets that deserved further investigation. And for such an endeavor prominent
Kremlinologist Bernard Lecomte has no equal.
Permanent special correspondent of L’Express magazine in Moscow for 15 years, BERNARD LECOMTE witnessed, day after day, the saga of Gorbachev at the head of the Soviet Union and is one of the best specialists on the “Gorbachev era” in Europe. His knowledge of Russian, essential to the task, facilitated access to the archives of the period and made possible many important and informative interviews. He is the author of Jean-Paul II
(Gallimard, 2003), Les Secrets du
Vatican (Perrin, 2009 – 25.000 copies sold in France, 11 transla-tions into foreign languages), Les
Derniers Secrets du Vatican (Perrin, 2012 – 15.000 copies sold) and Gorbachev (Perrin, 2014).
The Kremlin. Behind its red brick walls, how many conspiracies, mysteries, crimes and betrayals has the famous Moscow fortress concealed? For nearly a century it has been the center and symbol of the communist empire, founded by Lenin, bolstered by Stalin, managed by Khrushchev and Brezhnev, dismantled by Gorbachev and restored, for better or worse, by Putin. So many questions, sha-dows, mysteries and forbidden secrets still lurk behind the towers of the Kremlin! Who killed Rasputin? How did Tsar Nicolas II die? How did Stalin kill Trotsky? Who were, really, Kravchenko, Andro-pov or the “Farewell” spy? Where did Vladimir Putin come from?
Instead of a chronological or linear narrative, the author has de-cided to tell sixteen sensational and classic episodes of this cen-tury of fire and blood, combining tragedy and romance.
Russia October 2016
384 pages
ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL HISTORY
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Death of the CaesarsJoël Schmidt
The last days of the Roman emperors.
JOEL SCHMIDT has written numerous books, including seve-ral on the history of the Roman Empire. Perrin recently published his Femmes de pouvoir dans la Rome antique (Powerful women in ancient Rome, Perrin, 2012) and Hadrien (Hadrian, Perrin, 2014).
It is said one’s whole life flashes before one’s eyes at the moment of death. The Roman emperors, depicted here according to how they died, particularly illustrate this observation: in all, seventy-one emperors, starting with Caesar in 44 BC, who did not have the title but left his name and his fame to all his successors, and ending with Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD. Murder, disease, slow agony, suicide, sometimes a glorious end facing the enemy, preci-pitated the last breaths of those who ruled for half a millennium over the entire known world.
For each of these emperors, this is the moment to take stock of their lives and their reigns. They try to evaluate them, in the midst of their fever, nightmares and dreams, their suffering, fear, re-morse, rage and, for some, their final acts of cruelty.
The author, who remains respectfully close to the source material, often lets the emperors speak for themselves, as he tries to ima-gine what their final thoughts could have been. Their deaths illu-minate their lives. They somehow humanize the Empire of which they were absolute masters. These sovereigns, suddenly stripped of everything, can finally be seen in their rawest truth.
Ancient &
Medieval
History
September 2016
336 pages
PERRIN 2016
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Expelling the Jews: All the better to reign
Juliette Sibon
How and why, in the Middle Ages, the kings of France expelled and then brought back,
six times, the Jews of France.
A lecturer in medieval history at the University of Albi, JULIETTE SIBON obtained her doctorate at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, completing a thesis on the Jews of Marseille in the fourteenth century, under the direction of Henri Bresc. She is also a director of the Nouvelle Gallia judaica research unit.
From Philippe Auguste (in 1182) to Louis XII (1501), the kings of France repeatedly drove out the Jews, then later recalled them, see-mingly ambivalent on what their fate should be in the kingdom. Christian intellectuals developed increasingly vicious arguments against Judaism, considered a false and inferior religion. Yet they were ready to keep the Jews within Christendom, with the Pope as the guarantor of their safety.
These events, although central to the genesis of the modern state in the last centuries of the Middle Ages, remain largely unknown to the general public and are often ignored by medievalists. The book sets out to retrace what happened, to identify the political will of decision-makers beyond their personal hatred of Jews and the anti-Judaism dominant in Christian society, to grasp the views of intellectuals and the feelings of Christian subjects, to try to un-derstand how the victims reacted to these upheavals, and finally to insert the Jews’ particular history in the general history of the kingdom of France at the time of the last Capetian and the first Valois kings.
Ancient &
Medieval
History
September 2016
298 pages
MEDIEVAL HISTORYBIOGRAPHY
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Napoleon and de GaulleTwo French HeroesPatrice Gueniffey
The two leading figures in the history of France seen from the perspective of one of
France’s major historians.
Professor at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris, PATRICE GUENIFFEY has published, among other books, La Politique de la Terreur (The politics of the Terror, Fayard, 2000). His recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte (Gallimard, 2013) was hailed by critics. He has since directed the best historians in the collective work Les derniers jours des rois (The Last Days of the Kings, Perrin 2014), attracting 25,000 readers; he has also written, with Thierry Lentz, La fin des Empires (The End of Empires, Perrin 2016), which has sold 13,000 copies to date).
Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles De Gaulle are the two favorite historical figures of the French – the two emblematic heads of state of modern France. Combining his subtlety as an analyst, his vision as a historian and his masterful writing skills, Patrice Gue-niffey has given us an authoritative, ground-breaking essay that compares and contrasts the careers and personalities of the two giants, within the framework of a reflection on the figure of the French savior.
Sharing the same military background, both men took advantage of the chaos of a dying regime (the Directoire, the Fourth Repu-blic) to seize power and create a system based on executive pri-macy and centralized administration. Their two consulates are viewed today with universal admiration – served of course by their genius for propaganda (Napoleon’s Grande Armée bulletins and proclamations, the General’s press conferences) in the service of a unifying cause and the same quest for greatness. These two great politicians were also bona fide writers (The Memorial of St. Helena and the Complete War Memoirs can both be found in the distinguished Bibliothèque de la Pléiade collection), who became living legends after a reign of similar duration (1799-1815; 1944-46 and 1958-69). The tragedy of their fall and the solitude of their end conspired to create their brilliant myth, which continues to outshine their successors.
But they were also profoundly different. Imperial excesses, for ins-tance, contrasted with the Gaullist pragmatism that could give up the Empire for the Europe the Napoleonic eagle had torn apart. On all these issues, and numerous others, the author provides a fresh outlook. He asks questions, opens new avenues and challenges our present in the light of these two stars.
Biography February 2017
448 pages
PERRIN 2016
31
Joseph BonaparteThierry Lentz
The extraordinary life of Napoleon’s older brother, King of Naples, King of Spain and expatriate in the
United States during 25 years.
Director of the Fondation Napoléon, THIERRY LENTZ has written some thirty books about the Consulate and the Empire.
Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844) played a key role during the Revo-lution, then under the rule of his younger brother, Napoleon. A quick overview of his functions in that quarter-century is enough to measure his importance: president of the Ajaccio district, war commissioner, ambassador, parliamentarian, state counselor, se-nator, grand elector of the Empire, king of Naples, king of Spain, the Emperor’s lieutenant general in 1814, president of the Council of Ministers during the Hundred Days. His active political role was thus crucial, and characterized by a very close relationship to Na-poleon. He was perhaps the Emperor’s only friend.Nor did he have a lesser role after 1815, despite leaving Europe for the United States. During his exile that lasted nearly 25 years, he became an influential personality. Increasingly inflexible in his old age, he clashed with his nephew Louis-Napoleon, future Napoleon III. Buried in Florence where he died in 1844, he would eventually rejoin his brother in his tomb under the dome of the Invalides in Paris in 1862.Joseph Bonaparte has yet to be the subject of such an extensive biography. In Napoleonic historiography, he has suffered from the failure of his Spanish reign and from Napoleon’s criticism of him in his letters from Saint Helena. Thierry Lentz brings to this work his extensive knowledge of the facts and the atmosphere of the times as well as research based on previously unpublished archives in France and abroad, as well as an impressive bibliography. By reevaluating and sometimes going against the accepted narrative, the author reestablishes Joseph Bonaparte as brother, man and ruler.
“In the end, the big question, treated brilliantly by the author, is to learn whether Joseph Bonaparte was a dilettante or even…an incapable….Ultimately, what emerges from this life history, conducted with talent by the author, is a likeable personality, equipped with real capabilities, free in his mores without being corrupt…Joseph well deserves to be portrayed.” | LIRE magazine
Biography August 2016
752 pages
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ClausewitzBruno Colson
The biography of the great theorist of war by one of Europe’s top experts on the Napoleonic wars and the
history of strategic thought.
BRUNO COLSON is an expert on the Napoleonic wars and the history of strategic thought. A pro-fessor at the University of Namur, he has written several studies of Clausewitz. His latest book, Leip-zig, la bataille des Nations (16-19 octobre 1813), received the Premier Empire prize from the Fondation Napoléon in 2013. He is also the editor of De la Guerre – a compila-tion of Napoleon’s military writings translated into English (Oxford University Press), Chinese (Shan-ghai Academy of Social Sciences), Russian (AST), Portuguese (Record – Brazil), Spanish (La Esfera de los Libros).
As Montesquieu did for law and Newton for physics, Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) founded the systematic study of war as an eternal human phenomenon. His major work, On War, is still read and studied all over the world because of its rare ability not to restrict reflection but to enable it, on the contrary, to develop and adapt to the upheavals of history. Yet the life of Clausewitz – who was both a high-ranking military officer and an exceptional writer – has never been the subject of thorough investigation. The end of the Cold War, German reunification and the partial re-constitution of the Prussian archives have delivered new material and made it possible to better understand the man. Far from being a solitary thinker, Clausewitz always maintained strong friendships and influenced some important decisions during the Napoleonic Wars. He also focused his attention on Franco-German relations, having grasped they were at the heart of European problems. His correspondence with his wife Marie is one of the richest of the time. It portrays the modern union of the Clausewitz couple, based on mutual esteem and a relationship of equality and ongoing dialogue. All this is not unrelated to the asto-nishing modernity of Clausewitz’s ideas.
“Thanks to its educational qualities – each chapter opens and ends with a useful summary that helps the reader maneuver the labyrinth of Germany on the verge of unification – this biography situates the man [Clausewitz] in his century : this Prussian officer was open to the ideas of the Enlightenment, from which he borrowed to initiate the German military staff to the science of war…A book to be read for the alternative perspective it gives on contemporary geopolitical tensions.” | Le Monde magazine
Biography September 2016
517 pages
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GermanicusYann Rivière
By reconstructing the life of Germanicus, Yann Rivière provides us with a vivid depiction of the Roman Empire at its glorious begin-nings. He takes us to the heart of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, where genius, madness and murder intermingled.
An expert on the legal and political history of ancient Rome and the former director of antiquity studies at l’Ecole française in Rome, YANN RIVIÈRE is now director of studies at EHESS. Among the books he has published are Le cachot et les fers, Détention et coercition à Rome (The dungeon and shackles, Detention and coercion in Rome, Belin,2004) and Les délateurs sous l’Empire romain (Informers in the Roman Empire, Ecole française de Rome,2002).
Germanicus can be seen on the Great Cameo of France, the vic-torious warrior being welcomed home by his uncle and adoptive father Tiberius and by his grandmother Livia, Augustus’s widow. He was the young prince, the Caesar that Rome and the world were waiting for, once freedom was restored. But Germanicus died in Antioch in the year 19, at the age of 34 and in suspicious circums-tances, and his glorious destiny died with him, unfulfilled.
Possessing all the republican virtues along with military courage and intellectual prowess, the grand-son of Mark Antony, husband of Agrippina and father of Caligula had risen precociously to the top. Death struck him down at the height of his success, but it may have spared him the kind of bloodthirsty career his relatives were known for. With all the statues, bas-reliefs, medals and ins-criptions that were produced in his honor, he could have been a god. And when the ancient world took up Western culture again in the sixteenth century, the name and character of Germanicus came up in music, literature and art far more frequently than his brief passage might warrant.
Biography October 2016
576 pages
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JesusFrançois Taillandier
A literary life of Jesus written by a novelist and a believer.
Novelist FRANÇOIS TAILLANDIER is best known for writing Anielka (winner of the French Academy novel prize, Stock, 1999) and a suite in five volumes, La Grande Intrigue (The great intrigue, Stock, 2005-2009). He is also the author of L’Ecriture du monde (Scripture of the world, Stock, 2013), La Croix et le croissant (The Cross and the Crescent, Stock, 2014) and Solstice (Stock,2015) a series hailed by the press as an outstanding achievement in the historical novel category.
Jesus of Nazareth has been described in many ways: a legendary character, an impostor, a sage, a pathological liar, and of course the son of God. “And you, who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples. Two thousand years later, the question remains and eve-ryone – atheist, skeptic, agnostic or believer – is seeking to answer it. It is as both a novelist and a believer that François Taillandier offers his vision. Sensitive to words, to the construction of narra-tives and their strength, he returns to the texts that speak of Jesus, the Gospels. One recurrent question guides his thought: who is telling us what? It is indeed strange to consider that in all probability, the authors of these texts never encountered Jesus. They wrote the story of his life decades after his crucifixion in a language that was not his: Greek. And what are we to think of the facts and beliefs recounted, such as the Annunciation, the miracle of Cana, the countless hea-lings and the Resurrection?To approach Jesus, François Taillandier goes back to the original texts in ancient Greek with an attitude of total openness, to the point of courting controversy. In this work, the gaze of the critical reader and that of the “free” Catholic converge so that this pres-ence, this message that changed the course of history, can be ex-tracted from the traditional Christian approach.
“In his essay, he looks closely at the figure and life of Christ by going back to the sources – the four famous texts of the Gospels…Taillandier is not a man of half-measures or pretence... From the beginning he goes to the essential of this Jesus. Who is he really? This interrogation runs throughout the book and stems from a personal meditation on the texts, a disciplined attention to the best sources and a constant effort to avoid the twin pitfalls of inane wonder and cold rationalism.” | Le Figaro magazine
Biography August 2016
350 pages
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RasputinAlexandre Sumpf
A new biography of the most controversial character in Russian history.
ALEXANDRE SUMPF is a lec-turer in contemporary history at the University of Strasbourg. He attended the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure and holds a doctorate in history. His first books De Lénine à Gagarine. Une histoire sociale de l’URSS (Lenin to Gaga-rin. A social history of the USSR, Gallimard, 2013) and La Grande Guerre oubliée. Russie, 1914-1918 (The Great Forgotten War. Russia, 1914-1918, Perrin,2014) brought him immediate recognition as one of the most promising historians of his generation.
Like Caligula, Grigori Rasputin is one of those characters whose dark and omnipresent legend obscures his real story.
The life of the peasant-healer who became a favorite of the impe-rial couple (Nicolas II and Alexandra) has long fascinated us: his miraculous ability to treat the hemophiliac Tsarevich; his Homeric escapades; his meteoric rise and his mysterious murder, which set the tone for the revolution and eventually led the Romanovs and their autocracy to follow him into the grave.
Considered one of the top specialists of Russian and Soviet his-tory, Alexandre Sumpf sets out to investigate, consulting archives and the vast existing bibliography, most of it in Russian. He tells the story of the man first, and then he explores the multiple layers of his demonization, revealing much about the successive meta-morphoses of Russia in the twentieth century.
Biography November 2016
352 pages
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The Women of VersaillesAlexandre Maral
Foreword by Stéphane Bern
For the first time, a book that presents a collective portrait of the women who made Versailles, from
Madame de Maintenon to Marie-Antoinette.
Archivist and paleographer with a doctorate in the arts, former resident fellow of the French Academy in Rome, ALEXANDRE MARAL is a curator at Versailles, where he is responsible for the sculpture collections. With Perrin, he published in 2012 Le Roi-Soleil et Dieu. Essai sur la religion de Louis XIV (The Sun King and God. Essay on the religion of Louis XIV) (foreword by Marc Fumaroli and Pierre-Lafue prize), followed in 2013 by Le roi, la cour et Versailles, 1682-1789. Le coup d’éclat permanent. (The King, the Court and Versailles, 1682-1789. Permanent fireworks), and in 2014 Les derniers jours de Louis XIV (The last days of Louis XIV).
Residence of the last three kings of Ancien Régime France, Ver-sailles was also the home of their wives: Maria Theresa, who died there in 1683; Marie Leszczynska, who lived in the chateau from 1725 to 1768; and Marie Antoinette, who married the Dauphin, heir to the throne, in 1770 and reigned as queen from 1774 to 1789.
In different ways, these three personalities left their mark on Ver-sailles, particularly Marie Antoinette. Female members of the royal family also played a vital role in Versailles, from the spirited Du-chess of Burgundy under Louis XIV to the remarkable daughters of Louis XV. And then there were the other women of Versailles: Madame de Maintenon, who became the secret wife of Louis XIV; the many favorites of Louis XV – Madame de Mailly, Madame du Barry and the invincible Madame de Pompadour; as well as Marie Antoinette’s close friends, particularly the Duchess of Polignac.
Imagined and written in the very place they inhabited, this pano-ramic view of the royal court’s female contingent offers insight into the lifestyle of women in the king’s entourage, a study of their social, cultural and in some cases political roles, and a reflection on their destinies – often improbable and certainly exceptional.
Biography October 2016
350 pages
ALBUMS AND OMNIBUS BOOKS
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1917, the Year that Changed the World
Jean-Christophe Buisson
The aim of this anniversary album is to examine the year 1917 from every angle, through a selective
chronology and a detailed narrative, richly illustrated and annotated.
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BUISSON is the editor in chief of Figaro Maga-zine’s culture section. The books he has written include Mihailovic Perrin 2011 (Tempus collection) and Assassinés (Murdered, Perrin 2013, Pocket 2014). He co-edited Les grands duels qui ont fait la France (The great duels that made France) (with A. Brezet, Perrin 2014) and Les derniers jours des reines (The Queens’ Last Days with J. Sevilla, Perrin 2015).
1917 was a decisive year in the course of the First World War but also in world history, and not only from a geopolitical or military point of view with its great battles (Chemin des Dames, Caporetto) and major events (the failure of peace talks launched by Austria-Hungary and the Pope, the collapse of Russia, Greece falling into the Allied camp, the first mutinies and strikes in the trenches, etc.).In all domains – scientific, cultural, intellectual and social – this year is comparable to 1789 or 1815 in magnitude, marking a far-ranging upheaval whose consequences are still felt today.
1917 is the first year of the two revolutions in Russia, creating the first Communist state and a global political movement that would mark the entire twentieth century, leaving in its wake tens of mil-lions of victims. This is also the year when for the first time, the US intervened militarily in Europe, far from their homeland. Furthermore, 1917 is the year of the Balfour Declaration, which promised to create a state for the Jews on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, the Corfu Declaration, providing for the (artificial) crea-tion of Yugoslavia, the emergence of the concept of “total war”, which fascist, Nazi and Communist regimes developed into indus-trialized massacre; the passing of the Espionage Act in the United States, still in force in 2016; the birth of the Dada artistic move-ment and the first appearance of the term surrealism, destined to change the history of twentieth century art.
Albums November 2016
320 pages
AROUND 100 ILLUSTRATIONS
PERRIN 2016
39
JapanThe Archipelago of Meaning
Michael Lucken
Challenging Roland Barthes and his famous book “The Empire of Signs”, a historical invitation to
discover the real Japan.
Professor of Japanese history, arts and art history at INALCO (French Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations) MICKAËL LUCKEN is the author of Les Japonais et la guerre 1935-1952 (The Japanese and the 1935-1952 war, Fayard,2013), for which he received the Thiers prize of the Académie française in 2014; 1945-Hiroshima : les images sources (1945-Hiroshima: the source images, Editions Hermann, 2008) and Les Peintres japonais à l’épreuve de la guerre, 1935-1952 (Japanese Painters in the crucible of war, from 1935 to 1952, Les Belles Lettres,2005).
Is Japan radically different? Its relationship to science, how it orga-nizes power, how the world is represented there: all of these as-pects might make us wonder. Yet numerous cultural references are common to both sides of the Eurasian continent. The primary aim of this book is to show that Japan is part of the same community as the Western countries, a premise that goes against the conven-tional wisdom.
It’s not enough, however, to stress the similarity of values and so-cial and political structures to erase the impression of strangeness that a first encounter with the country inspires. What gives us this sense of singularity? Using a series of images, the book answers this question, dismissing preconceived ideas to make it possible for us to see and understand the real Japan, far from the absolute otherness so often described.
An innovative book, structured as a dialogue between text and ico-nography. A future classic.
Albums November 2016
216 pages
AROUND 70 COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
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The Century of Coronations
Jean des CarsJean des Cars gives a front-row seat at the 16 grandest
coronations, from Queen Victoria of England (1838) to King Felipe of Spain. Illustrated with exceptional images,
the album takes us to the heart of the royal courts of Europe and the consecrations of their sovereigns, in all
their pomp and circumstance.
JEAN DES CARS is the historian of the great European dynasties and their most illustrious repre-sentatives. His works are widely translated, particularly in Central Europe. Among his greatest hits, all published by Perrin: Sissi ou la Fatalité (Sissi or Fate, 2005); La Saga des Romanov (The Saga of the Romanovs, 2008); La Saga des Habsbourg (The Saga of the Habs-burgs, 2010); La Saga des Windsor (The Saga of the Windsors, 2011); La Saga des reines (The Saga of the Queens, 2012), La Saga des fa-vorites (The Saga of the Favorites, 2013) and Le Sceptre et le Sang (Of Blood and Scepter, 2014).
The early years of the twenty-first century saw the arrival of a new generation of rulers on the thrones of several European monar-chies. Their coronations were highly publicized, arousing curio-sity and usually enthusiasm, not only from their subjects but from countless fans of royalty who avidly followed these often specta-cular proceedings. The religious ceremony at the coronation, a rite dating back to the Old Testament, was the custom for centuries in European empires, kingdoms and principalities. This sacred ritual has gradually been replaced by the taking of an oath before Parliament. This is sometimes preceded or followed by a religious celebration, mandatory in countries with a state religion of which the monarch is the head.
Nicolas II of Russia, Zita of Hungary, Rainier III of Monaco, Bau-douin I of Belgium, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (whose coronation in 1953 had worldwide impact as the first to be tele-vised), Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Margrethe II of Denmark, Carl XVI of Sweden, Juan Carlos of Spain, Beatrix of the Netherlands, Harald V of Norway, Henri of Luxembourg, Albert II of Monaco, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Philippe, King of the Belgians: Jean des Cars, with his customary flair, describes the moment they took power.
Albums November 2016
350 pages
AROUND 100 COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
PERRIN 2016
41
Contested HistoryPolitical Correctness under Fire
Jean Sévillia
The three principal historical essays written by Jean Sévillia, updated and combined for the first time in
one volume with a new preface.
Essayist and historian, JEAN SÉVILLIA is deputy editor at Figaro Magazine and a member of the scientific committee of Figaro Histoire. He has many bestselling books to his credit, including, pu-blished by Perrin, Zita, impératrice courage (Zita, Empress courage, 1997,2016); Le dernier Empereur Charles d’Autriche (The last Empe-ror Charles of Austria, 2009,2012); and Histoire passionnée de la France (Passionate History of France, 2013).
Jean Sevillia was the first to denounce political correctness ap-plied to the analysis of French history. This approach, inspired by anticlerical republicanism and a certain Marxist creed, has helped forge, according to the author, a monolithic orthodoxy to which he responds with his own vision, enshrined in the great conservative tradition and based on his extensive historical and journalistic culture. All three of these spirited and high-minded essays were well-received by critics and a wide audience; they have contribu-ted to the debate on French history’s Gordian knots from the Cru-sades to the present day, notably the French Revolution, 1940 and May 68.
1. Historically correct (2003) offers a counter-history of France from the Crusades to the war in Algeria, refuting the popular clichés one by one. With more than 100,000 copies sold, it remains to this day the author’s most successful work. Translated into several languages, it received the Grand Prix Catholique de Littérature (top Catholic prize for literature).
2. Morally correct (2004) complements and deepens the previous text with a thematic and transversal approach to the main patterns of the dominant way of thinking (indi-vidualism, the worship of pleasure, the cult of the pampered child, “the right to (not) work”, “Global Citizens”, cultural politics, etc.).
3. Intellectual terrorism from 1945 to today, first published in 2000, is deliberately placed at the end of the volume because it establishes the link between history and current events in its attack on the successive trends and passions of the dominant leftist intelligentsia – the Sartrians, in short. Praise for the “good revolutionaries” in the name of anti-colonialism (Stalin, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara et al.) With a consequent, absurd oblivion to the evils of communism. The anarchy and libertarian spirit of 1968 giving birth to a selfish society without values, the cult of the other pushed to the point of self-loathing. The demonization of the right, maintained by the specter of Vichy and the exploitation of the National Front.
Putting these texts together reveals their deep coherence, en-hanced by the author’s flowing style.
General
History
September 2016
839 pages
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Every Last Secretof the IIIrd Reich
François Kersaudy & Yannis Kadari
The two big bestsellers by François Kersaudy and Yannis Kadaris, The Secrets of the Third Reich and The Last Secrets of the Third Reich brought together in one
volume.
Professor FRANÇOIS KERSAUDY, author of numerous texts on World War II, has written biographies of Churchill, Goering, Mountbatten and MacArthur, and the only book ever written on the relationship between de Gaulle and Churchill. A multilingual historian, he has received eleven French and British literary awards. He directs the col-lection Maîtres de Guerre (Masters of war) since its creation in 2010.
YANNIS KADARI is the founder and head of the press group Caraktère, which publishes five magazines on military history. He wrote a biography of General Patton in the Maîtres de Guerre collection (Perrin), which he codi-rected from 2011 to 2015.
The Secrets of the Third Reich is licensed in:
SPANISH | Omega editorialPOLISH | Muza
In this book that comprises the two volumes on the secrets of the Third Reich, François Kersaudy and Yannis Kadaris revisit some mysterious episodes in the history of Nazism. While much has already been written about some of these mysteries, there remai-ned, for each one, questions left unanswered, dark shadows, as-pects that were unexplored and even taboo, which merited further investigation...In recounting and revealing the greatest secrets of the Nazi regime and its dignitaries, the authors, with their meticu-lous attention to detail and their inimitable talent as storytellers, shed new light on the underside of one of the most astounding periods of the twentieth century.
So who wrote Mein Kampf? How were the Nazis planning to des-troy the United States? What is known of the Führer’s relationships with women? How did Hitler imagine his new capital, Germania? What was behind the Rudolf Hess case? Who was responsible for the Reichstag fire? What really happened in Hitler’s bunker in April 1945? And much more.
1st & 2nd
World Wars
November 2016
480 pages
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTSAsk to see these recent 2015/2016 successes!
UNE JOURNEE AVEC edited by Franz-Olivier Giesbert and Claude Quétel
The “ordinary” life of extraordinary characters – for example: what did Louis XIV do when he woke up in the morning ? As well as a day in the life of Charlemagne, Francis I, Henri IV, Madame de Pompadour, Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre, Napoleon, Nico-las II, Clemenceau, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Pétain, Mao, Charles de Gaulle, JFK, Khrushchev, Mitterand and Queen Elizabeth II.
Publication date : May 2016
MORE THAN 10 000 COPIES SOLD IN FRANCE
Rights sold in Rumania (Niculescu)
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HISTOIRE DU COUPLE by Jean-Claude Bologne
Jean-Claude Bologne retraces the evolution of the couple from antiquity to the present. Concise and clear-sighted, this major synthesis expands the field of reflection on this timely subject.
Publication date : March 2016
Rights sold in:China - Simplified (Jiangxi)South American – Spanish (Luna Libros)
PERRIN 2016
45
LA FIN DES EMPIRES edited by Patrice Gueniffey et Thierry Lentz
Is history doomed to repeat itself? This familiar question is well worth asking when we consider the rise and fall of empires such as : Alexander the Great’s ; Rome; Persia ; the Carolingian empire; the Arab caliphates ; the Mongols ; the Byzantine ; the Aztec ; the Holy Roman Empire ; the Spanish empire ; Napoleon; the Chinese ; Austria-Hungary ; the Ottoman empire ; the third Reich; the Japanese ; the British ; the French ; the Soviet ; the American.
Publication date : January 2016
OVER 12 000 COPIES SOLD IN FRANCE
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HEIDEGGERby Guillaume Payen
A uniquely historical biography. The result of 12 years of re-search, based on a thorough reading of Heidegger’s works, inclu-ding the controversial Black Notebooks, Guillaume Payen looks at Heidegger’s life from the point of view of an historian.
Publication date : January 2016
Received the prestigious Prix Maurice Baumont de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques for an outstanding title on Ger-man history.
Rights sold to Yale University Press (World English)
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTSAsk to see these recent 2015/2016 successes!
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTSAsk to see these recent 2015/2016 successes!
LES DERNIERS JOURS DES REINES edited by Jean-Christophe Buisson and Jean Sévillia
Following the success of Les derniers jours des rois (The Last Days of the Kings), here are the stories of the last days of the most fa-mous queens and empresses, whose lives, deaths and destinies changed the history of the world : Cleopatra ; Agrippina; Brunhil-da ; Eleanor of Aquitaine ; Isabella the Catholic ; Catherine de Medici ; Marie Stuart ; Christina of Sweden ; Anne of Austria ; Maria Theresa of Austria ; Catherine II ; Marie-Antoinette ; Jose-phine de Beauharnais ; Sissi ; Charlotte of Belgium; Queen Victo-ria ; Draya Obrenovitch ; Alexandra of Russia ; Empress Eugénie ; Queen Astrid.
Publication date : October 2015
20 000 COPIES SOLD IN FRANCE
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PORTRAITS D’IDOLES by Frédéric Martinez
“Behind the scenes” in the Hollywood of the 1950s and 1960s, through the stories of six legendary actresses: Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Audrey Hepburn.
Publication date : October 2015
Rights sold in :Czech Republic – BranaItaly – Lindau
PERRIN 2016
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LES MYTHES DE LA SECONDE GUERRE MONDIALE edited by Jean Lopez and Olivier Wieviorka
Twenty-one myths about World War II are explained and decons-tructed by a group of historians and the editorial team of the magazine Guerres et Histoire.
Publication date : September 2015
17 000 COPIES SOLD IN FRANCE
Rights sold in :Czech Republic – BranaPoland – Wyd. PoznanskieRumania – RAOSouth America (Spanish) – El Ateneo
LES SECRETS DE LA ROME ANTIQUE by Eric Teyssier
Twelve lively and engaging chapters reveal the secrets of ancient Rome
Publication date : September 2015
Rights sold in :Italy – Libreria GorizianaSpain – EdafPoland - Bellona
BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTSAsk to see these recent 2015/2016 successes!
Perrin is an imprint of Edi812, avenue d’Italie
75013 Paris
Rights ManagerRebecca Byers
