Cart

Unlocking potential with the best learning and research solutions

Look Inside Contesting France

Contesting France
Intelligence and US Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War

$59.99 (F)

Part of Cambridge Studies in US Foreign Relations

Author: Susan McCall Perlman, National Intelligence University

Date Published: February 2023
availability: Available
format: Hardback
isbn: 9781316511817

Rate & review

$ 59.99 (F)
Hardback

Add to cart Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
eBook

Looking for an examination copy?

If you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.

Description

Contents

Resources

Courses

About the Authors

Contesting France reveals the untold role of intelligence in shaping American perceptions of and policy toward France between 1944 and 1947, a critical period of the early Cold War when many feared that French communists were poised to seize power. In doing so, it exposes the prevailing narrative of French unreliability, weakness, and communist intrigue apparent in diplomatic dispatches and intelligence reports sent to the White House as both overblown and deeply contested. Likewise, it shows that local political factions, French intelligence and government ofﬁcials, colonial ofﬁcers, and various trans-national actors in imperial outposts and in the metropole sought access to US intelligence ofﬁcials in a deliberate effort to shape US policy for their own political postwar agendas. Using extensive archival research in the United States and France, Susan McCall Perlman sheds new light on the nexus between intelligence and policymaking in the immediate postwar era.
- Reveals how intelligence was an integral part of US foreign relations in the post-war era
- Based on multi-archival research in the US and France
- Complicates previous understandings of Franco-American relations and helps explain the course of the relationship throughout the twentieth century
- Provides an international and trans-imperial context by decentering Washington and focusing on the French, the colonized, and official and non-state webs of actors operating in France and her empire
Read more
Reviews & endorsements
'Perlman offers a revealing examination that decenters Washington and instead provides a deeply researched and beautifully written transnational and trans-imperial history. She recognizes that foreign policy is rarely the result of one voice. Instead, she highlights the myriad of voices, which jockeyed for position within and among, the various government agencies, and countries. This is intelligence history at its best.' Sarah-Jane Corke, Co-Founder and Past-President of the North American Society for Intelligence History and Associate Professor at the University of New Brunswick
'Although intelligence remains international history’s ‘missing dimension,’ Perlman joins a small cadre of scholars committed to filling in the gap. Based on prodigious research in multinational archives, her innovative and masterful Contesting France enhances and complicates our understandings of early cold war history and intelligence’s pivotal yet problematic contribution to it.' Richard Immerman, author of The Hidden Hand: A Brief History of the CIA
'By applying a 'trans-imperial' approach to the role of intelligence, Contesting France delivers an innovative, intricate, and convincing insight into the early Cold War. By placing emotion central to the narrative, this book demonstrates just what is possible with a 'new diplomatic history' approach to international relations. An exceptional achievement.' Giles Scott-Smith, Roosevelt Chair in New Diplomatic History, Leiden University
'In this exceedingly well-written and argued book, Perlman’s assessment of American anxiety indicates that US intelligence officials had little grasp of internal French political stability, French nationalism, and independence movements in French colonies. This book could not be more relevant in urging us to think about how we gather, use, and abuse intelligence to achieve foreign policy goals.' Kathryn C. Statler, author of Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam
See more reviews
Customer reviews

Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review

Log in to review

Review was not posted due to profanity
×

, create a review

(If you're not , sign out)

Please enter the right captcha value

Please enter a star rating.

Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

How do you rate this item?

Reviews must contain at least 12 words about the product.

×

Product details
- Date Published: February 2023
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781316511817
- length: 275 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 158 x 22 mm
- weight: 0.58kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations in text
Abbreviations in notes
Introduction
1. Liberation
2. Civil war
3. Restoration
4. March to power
5. L'Evénement
Conclusion: How intelligence becomes policy
Notes
Bibliography.
Look Inside
Author
Susan McCall Perlman, National Intelligence University
Susan McCall Perlman is Professor of History and Intelligence Studies at the National Intelligence University. She has published widely on US foreign relations and intelligence and is the 2020 recipient of the Robert Beland Excellence in Teaching Award.