The Return of De Gaulle

The Return of De Gaulle tells the dramatic story of the army mutiny that restored General Charles de Gaulle to power in 1958. Over a decade had passed since de Gaulle, the wartime leader of the Free French, had withdrawn from politics to write his memoirs. Then, on 13 May, officers seized power in French Algeria during a bloody anticolonial war. They called for Christian Democrat premier Pierre Pflimlin to resign and a new government to be formed under de Gaulle, who declared himself ready to assume the powers of the Republic.

This pacy political history is the first book in English on an extraordinary moment that shapes France to this day. For weeks, France lived under the threat of civil war. There were barricades in Algiers and tanks on the streets of Paris. The Élysée hummed with talk of sedition.

Controversy has long surrounded whether the General and his entourage collaborated with the conspirators to pressure the government in Paris into capitulation. This can no longer be disputed. The convulsions marked the beginning of the Fifth Republic and a bitter contest over the end of empire and the limits of personalised power.