(Part 2) Best historical france biographies according to redditors

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We found 218 Reddit comments discussing the best historical france biographies. We ranked the 53 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top Reddit comments about Historical France Biographies:

u/Tempestion89 · 38 pointsr/wwiipics

I think I read that here

D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1539586391/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_DZnWDb9CZ9EWB

u/Jakedubbleya · 23 pointsr/todayilearned

OK, so there's a 2008 book here https://www.amazon.com/Unspeakable-Crimes-Dr-Petiot/dp/156663797X

An obnoxious 1970s Spanish TV spin-off modern drama on YouTube.

Aaaand a supposedly very good 1990 French film that I can't find with subtitles.

Guess I'll get my suitcase, I'm off to Hollywood to pitch my first great movie idea.

u/kreegz2 · 7 pointsr/FrenchForeignLegion

I don't feel qualified to answer your question directly as I haven't served in the FFL(yet), but I would recommend this book written by a veteran of the Canadian armed forces who served in the Legion from 89-94. Some of the information is probably a bit dated by now but It does a great job of giving you practical information. Even in today's internet age there isn't much hard information out there about what to expect from the Legion and IMO his book is the most useful resource I have found yet.

He discusses this subject in the book and he says that there are a lot of things that the FFL does differently from most military units that veterans of most other services would find objectionable. He warns the reader, especially veterans, to be ready to accept some pretty large departures from usual military doctrine. For example, it is apparently commonplace for NCOs to hand off their weapons to their subordinates for cleaning after range time. He also talks about how the language barrier can be a hindrance to a unit's performance. In one instance while he was deployed in Chad, a Legionnaire was given an order not to fire his weapon while on guard post under any circumstance unless getting it cleared first. He had misunderstood the order to mean that he could fire at anything WITHOUT clearance, and ended up causing an unfortunate situation for him and his unit. It's not all bad though. He praises the extremely strong bond that the between legionnaires that the Legion fosters, and acknowledges that when the fighting gets thick it is these type of familial bonds that can pull a unit through a tough situation.

u/krokodilmannchen · 7 pointsr/fatFIRE

I'd like to chime in and recommend you Stefan Zweig's biography of Montaigne. There's a beautiful description of Montaigne's childhood. He came from a similar family (financially secure), but reading how his father went about raising his son is very inspirational (on par with Gibran's 'On Children' in The Prophet). And don't worry, it's a short book, unlike the actual Essais.

u/Samuel_I · 6 pointsr/AskHistorians

To go along with AdonisBucklar's excellent response, I would recommend The First Total War and The Wars Against Napoleon.

The former is an excellent summary of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars directed at the idea that they represented the first 'total war' of the modern era. David A Bell does an excellent job of explaining the circumstances that led to Napoleon's hand being largely forced.

The latter is decidedly pro-Napoleon. It is a polemic book, but is a view of him that is not often encountered in America which more often takes the opposite look at him due to our strong English ties. While I may not agree with all of their justifications, it is very interesting and informative.

u/toanoma · 5 pointsr/history

Have you started with the bibliographies or "for further reading" sections in your text books?

Here's a few I pulled of of my shelves.
Medieval Monasticism,
The End of Ancient Christianity,
Charlemagne's Courtier,
The Crusades: A Short History,
The Christians as the Romans Saw Them

u/400-Rabbits · 4 pointsr/AskHistorians

It's time once again for the AskHistorians Book Giveaway! Our lucky winner this month is Trevor Davis! The selection of books we have available this month are:

u/HighCrimesandHistory · 3 pointsr/TrueCrimeDiscussion

I've been doing historical research for journal publication on late medieval/early modern Europe French crime. One of the biggest crimes was the Affair of the Poisons, a period of a couple years in the 1670s where a vast conspiracy was uncovered of diviners selling poisons to citizens that were then used to murder people. It included some of the higher-ups of the French court, including those closest to King Louis XIV. Ultimately 450 people were implicated, 200 arrested, 36 were executed, 23 were exiled, 5 were sent to the galleys, and 55 were imprisoned directly from the king for life. Others died under torture or suicide. Problem was that it unraveled as witnesses became unreliable (they were executing witnesses too quickly and couldn't corroborate statements made with other witnesses).

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Anyways, I was fascinated enough by the whole thing that I threw it together into a 2-part podcast! I highly recommend reading The Affair of the Poisons by Anne Somerset if you're interested in the time period and case.

u/Subotan · 2 pointsr/relationship_advice

If she likes politics, a good presidential biography, such as Truman by McCullough, Team of Rivals by Goodwin, The General by Fenby or Edmund Morris' the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt are classic choices. Biographies are good choices, as they're like novels and are easy to read, whilst being intellectually stimulating.

u/amazon-converter-bot · 1 pointr/FreeEBOOKS

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

u/hydrogenjoule · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

You may be interested in the memoirs of his personal valet - this covers 1809-1821, so not his whole life, but it is an eyewitness account.

http://www.amazon.ca/In-Napoleons-Shadow-Louis-Joseph-1811-1821/dp/1885446012

u/Chukkroot · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

Thanks a lot for that detailed answer.

I've read this book that insists on the importance of the rivalry inside the Royal family and mentions a long-term plot initiated by the King's brother (who would become Louis XVIII later). How accurate is that theory and can it be considered an important part of the French revolution ?

u/torgoboi · 1 pointr/infp

First, I want to say that one of the first things you're taught when studying history is not to measure something as "good" or "bad", especially in a very different time and place, because then you're imposing modern sensibilities and concepts onto a period when those simply didn't exist. So saying that the medieval period was somehow worse than Rome just isn't a sound historical comparison to make.

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Now to answer your question, bad things certainly happened in the medieval period, but with them came plenty of good things. If you want an interesting historical read, this book talks about a young woman accused of poisoning her husband. If anything, the story of the trial of this woman, named Margarida de Portu, shows what a great job the church and the legal system did at protecting a young girl against a powerful man. If you're into war history, one of my favorite stories about the Hundred Years War involves the blind John of Bohemia asking to be led into battle. His men do so in order to maintain his dignity. They tie their horses to his, and at the end of the battle, the horses are found still tied together, as are the remains of the men. To a modern audience, this may seem bizarre, but it seems that the English were appreciative of the gesture; Edward III had the man's body washed, wrapped in linen and returned to Germany in a litter. This is an impressive amount of respect to show one's enemy, since most of the bodies were buried in a mass grave.

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I know there's a tendency to define the Middle Ages by the Crusades, but that simply isn't the case. Even with Europe's interference in the Crusades, if you look at books like this one, there tends to be a complicated picture of even life in Jerusalem. There was tension, of course, and rulers like Saladin were intolerant of other people, but the Mamluks in particular focused their attention on restoring Jerusalem and spreading Muslim architecture in particular. The Mamluks seemed not to have ill will towards Jews or Christians. Muslims, of course, made important contributions to things like mathematics, art, and architecture in the medieval period. On the topic of conversions, not all conversions to Christianity were bloody. The conversion of England in particular seems to have happened in relative peace.

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I'm not as brushed up on what happened in medieval Asia, so I don't feel comfortable telling you much about that, but I strongly encourage you to look into that.

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If you feel the need to compare all this to Rome, I suggest being very careful. Roman history tends to get appropriated for all sorts of sinister purposes, from British imperialism to furthering the agenda of white supremacists. Antiquity isn't really my area to study, but I'm a research assistant for my university's classics department, and I can tell you that a lot of the literature has an incredible emphasis on violence. If you want a super long example of this, I would suggest reading Silius Italicus' Punica, which is a poem retelling the Punic Wars. Of course, it's fiction, so it takes some liberties. Hannibal is regarded as one of the greatest generals of all time. This was one of my favorite sections of the poem (courtesy of the Loeb Classical Library), in which Hannibal seems very vengeful over the death of his brother Hasdrubal. Of course, Rome isn't all bad either, but my point is, it's unfair to make those moral comparisons.

u/dJe781 · 1 pointr/AskMenOver30

If he likes history and finesse, I'd recommend Napoleon's Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand.

I'm particularly interested in negotiation and diplomatic strategy, and this read was both what I expected and what I love. Talleyrand was arguably the greatest foreign affairs minister in Europe, having to deal with the difficulties of peace treaties while serving under one of the biggest warmongers Europe ever knew: Napoleon.

It's an amazing read, really, and it's full of little power levers, witty retorts and, of course, a lovely sense of grandeur. You mentioned in another comment that your grandpa is a devout christian. Well, to make things better, Talleyrand was an archbishop at some point in his life, before going back to secular life for less than pure reasons ;)

If anything, he's regarded as one of the masterminds of diplomacy and negotiation. This man once convinced with a single sentence all the great leaders of Europe, emperors and kings, gathered in a single room, who went out of their way to kick Napoleon's ass, to drop the idea of humiliating and dismantling France in a situation where no one was able to protect her anymore.

Ironically, I had to read the work of an English man to learn that much about that fellow Frenchman.

u/Akasazh · 0 pointsr/AskHistorians

Blundering to Glory by Owen Connelly is an approachable book that goes trough all Napoleons campaigns and the political background. It tries to dispell the myths surrounding Napoleon's millitary genius (hence the title).


It's not that scholarly not that good a source, but its concise, well written and enjoyable.