Friendship and the Solitude of Greatness: The Case of Charles de Gaulle

The French statesman Charles de Gaulle was, and remains, something of an enigma. A genuinely great man, at first glance, he seems to tower above mere humanity. In studying de Gaulle's biographies and writings, the statesman and military man eclipses the human being without leaving his human bearing wholly behind. De Gaulle himself emphasized the solitude and sadness that accompanied the burden of human greatness. Yet de Gaulle, the self-described “man of character,” “the born protector,” was also a loving husband, a not terribly demanding or severe father, a faithful Christian, and a French patriot. There were profound limits to his solitude and self-sufficiency. His austere magnanimity coincided with moderation, even benevolence. He loved his country, strove for greatness, and sacrificed something of his private happiness for the public good. He was a complex man and soul, and perhaps a conflicted one.     

A Once and Future Greatness: Raymond Aron,Charles de Gaulle andthe Politics of Grandeur

Charles de Gaulle devoted his life to cultivating French grandeur, a politics that attempted to carve out an equal and independent role for France among the great powers of the world. One who frequently criticized de Gaulle's ideas of grandeur was the eminent social theorist, Raymond Aron. Although Aron was generally supportive of de Gaulle and supported him ‘every time there was a crisis’, he never hesitated to criticize de Gaulle, sometimes quite sharply. Aron's lifelong friendship with de Gaulle was thus marked by alternating bouts of mutual irritation and respect: Aron worried that de Gaulle's theatrics were sometimes detrimental to French national interests while de Gaulle fretted that Aron's commitment to French greatness was less enthusiastic than it should havebeen.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Aron's reaction to de Gaulle's politics of grandeur. Despite his reputation for ‘lucidity’, Aron was often ambivalent about de Gaulle's ambitions for France. We argue that Aron's ambivalence stemmed from his political creed, or from his commitment to a political philosophy that - as de Gaulle sensed - allowed for few settled convictions. This paper reviews Aron's assessment of two issues at the heart of de Gaulle's politics of grandeur, namely, the effort to promote a sense of national unity and the effort to create a nuclear force. In both areas, we witness a remarkably ambivalent Aron, one who struggled to soften the harsher edges of the excesses of what he considered to be the excesses of grandeur and find his way to a more moderate and coherent position.     

亢得时生平考略

亢得时 ,顺治漕运总督兼兵部尚书。顺治十六年 ( 165 9)对抗郑成功进犯 ,兵败自杀。由于正史无传 ,其人已近乎湮灭。本文试图对这位清初重臣的生平事迹 ,作更多的发掘和必要的考证 ,尽可能恢复其本来面目。亢得时见于《清史稿》者 ,止寥寥数处。督抚年表外 ,即世祖本纪中相应任命的记载 ,分别为 ,“(十年十一月 )戊申 ,以亢得时为河南巡抚”① 及“ (十四年 )九月辛丑 ,以亢得时为漕运总督”② 。试查其宦地之《河南通志》 (雍正 ) ,果然于卷五十四名宦 (上 ) ,得亢氏小传数行 :“亢得时 ,满洲籍。山西崞县 (按今山西原平市 )人。顺治二年任…     

European democracy deferred: de Gaulle and the Dehousse Plan, 1960

Abstract

This article examines the first debate within the European Economic Community (EEC) over democracy following the Treaty of Rome. The treaty called for the newly created European Parliament to draw up a proposal for direct, transnational parliamentary elections. A plan in 1960 led by Fernand Dehousse emerged as the consensus choice. Charles de Gaulle, however, opposed the plan and succeeded in defeating it. We see during the1960 debate over the Dehousse Plan competing interpretations of democracy in European unity that still frame the issue today. At stake was the democratic character of the new EEC as well as the proper role of the public in the uniting of Europe. Should the public vote on matters of European integration via transnational parliamentary elections, national referendums or neither? By analytically reconstructing the key participants’ democratic worldviews, the article contributes to developing a deeper understanding of the debate over direct elections to the European Parliament, a fuller comprehension of the early life of the Treaty of Rome and a sharper realisation of the essential interconnectedness of the development of the EEC and the resumption of national democracy in post-WWII Western Europe.     

林剑鸣教授学术小传

著名学者林剑鸣教授于秦汉史、法律史的教学、研究和出版,其贡献在学术界是非常突出和多方面的,先生长期以来对本刊的扶持和关心亦令人难忘。今年是林剑鸣教授逝世五周年,特刊发新近出版的《纪念林剑鸣教授史学论文集》中《林剑鸣教授学术传略》一文,以资纪念。     

我国最早向西方“佛朗机”学习的人──汪鋐传略考

本文简要介绍了汪 的生平传略,并认为他是中国最早率军抗击西方葡萄牙殖民者“佛朗机”入侵的要臣,也是引进西方先进武器：“佛朗机铳”并进行大规模推广使用的第一人。