Disclosure : This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

That Sweet Enemy

From Blenheim and Waterloo to `Up Yours, Delors` and `Hop Off You Frogs`, the cross-Channel relationship has been one of rivalry, misapprehension and suspicion. But it has also been a relationship of envy, admiration and affection. In the nearly two centuries since the final defeat of Napoleon, France and Britain have spent much of that time as allies – an alliance that has been almost as uneasy, as competitive and as ambivalent as the generations of warfare. Their rivalry both on peace and war, for good and ill, has shaped the modern world, from North America to India in the eighteenth century, in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it is still shaping Europe today. This magisterial book, by turns provocative and delightful, always fascinating, tells the rich and complex story of the relationship over three centuries, from the beginning of the great struggle for mastery during the reign of Louis XIV to the second Iraq War and the latest enlargement of the EU. It tells of wars and battles, ententes and alliances, but also of food, fashion, sport, literature, sex and music.Its cast ranges from William and Mary to Tony Blair, from Voltaire to Eric Cantona; its sources from ambassadorial dispatches to police reports, from works of philosophy to tabloid newspapers, from guidebooks to cartoons and films. It`s a book which brings both British humour and Gallic panache to the story of these two countries, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, in victory and in defeat, in dominance and in decline.

Related Products:

The Enemy At The Gate The Story Orchestra: The Sleeping Beauty A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear When the Birds Sing Hannibal: Enemy of Rome The Lost Pianos of Siberia: In Search of Russia`s Remarkable Survivors Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent Between the Lines That Sweet City – Visions of Oxford Search Sweet Country The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company The Big Music Stoner The Penguin Book of English Song: Seven Centuries of Poetry from Chaucer to Auden My Arch-Enemy Is a Brain In a Jar Mr Darley`s Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses Running Hard: The Story of a Rivalry Writing the Thames V&A Fashion Mash-Up Sweet Pizza My Sweet Orange Tree Sweet Fruit, Sour Land Handel in London: The Making of a Genius The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East America`s Musical Life:A History Island: How Islands Transform the World Twenty Three Sweet FAs Sweet Little Lies: The most gripping suspense thriller you`ll read this year Fashion Fabulous London 2013 The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital The Little Guides to Style: A Historical Review of Four Fashion Icons Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid A History of Fashion Magdalena: River of Dreams Mod: A Very British Style The National Trust Book of Puddings: 50 Irresistibly Nostalgic Sweet Treats & Comforting Classics Rebels: My Life Behind Enemy Lines with Warlords, Fanatics and Not-so-friendly Fire East of West, West of East My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels Book 1