About this Item
, large PAPERBACK, ONLY VOLUME ONE - used copy, foxing on covers, some pencil underlining and marginalia, ink underlining on a few pages. INSCRIBED at length in French by Debré to historian Hans A. Schmitt. DEBRÉ, MICHEL. Trois républiques pour une France : mémoires - Combattre. avec la collaboration d Odile Rudelle. Paris : A. Michel, 1984, 478pp., . VOLUME ONE of five volume memoirs. Hans A. Schmitt describes the encounter with the author, during research for a book on the origins of European unity, and the resulting gift of this inscribed copy from an important French political figure and contributor to the writing of the French Constitution (see Memoirs of a Tranquil Revolution, Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2003, p. 554:"Another member of this first European parliament whom I sought out was Michel Debré, then a French senator and not just a follower of, but a worshipper of General de Gaulle. Debre considered Monnet a sinister influence in French life and was also known to dislike Americans as much as his mentor did. Still, I decided to beard this passionate patriot because his was the only voice in Strasburg volubly opposed to supranationalism and European integration. A peculiar circumstance came to my assistance: I had written my dissertation on a French writer and Catholic activist, Charles Péguy, who was killed in the first battIe of the Marne in 1914. From these investigations I knew that Péguy's circle of friends included a young, eventually famous pediatrician named Robert Debré. I used this knowledge to ask the senator whether he was the son of "this friend of Charles Péguy," and thus broke the ice at once. The younger Debré eventually became the drafter of France's current constitution, the Fifth Republic's prime minister and key political manager during the General's stormy tenure of his country's presidency. Despite his many high-level preoccupations, we stayed in touch because Debré tolerated the adverse views of a student of Charles Péguy. An autographed copy of his memoirs attests to that.". Seller Inventory # 26480
Contact seller
Report this item
