This ambitious, wide-ranging series provides critical studies of key figures in international political history since 1500. The books are not personal biographies, although they do contain biographical information, but are succinct interpretative essay on the career. If any modern democratic leader has believed in the "great man" theory of history and acted self-consciously in accordance with it, it was surely de Gaulle. Twice he was the saviour of the nation. After emerging from relative obscurity to become the symbol of French resistance during the Second World War, he presided over the Liberation in 1944. Then, after being out of office for more than a decade, he returned to power in 1958 at the height of the Algerian crisis, to save the country from civil war and to found the Fifth Republic. Throughout his 30 year political career, de Gaulle was a compelling yet aloof and enigmatic figure on both the national and international stages: this concise and incisive study gives an account of the career and assesses its achievements and failures. Looks behind de Gaulle's mythic identity and offers a fresh interpretation of de Gaulle the politician. Guides the reader through the vast scholarship about de Gaulle, while at the same time offering a critical assessment. De Gaulle was a key figure in the shaping of modern Europe, as well as the domestic history of France: this volume sets him in his full international context