Walter Bruyère-OstellsHervé Drévillon and Jean-Christophe Romer (eds.), Anthology of French military thinkersNouveau Monde éditions, 15 January 2025, 1040p.

Summary:

From the white plume of Henry IV to Napoleon triumphant in the sunshine of Austerlitz, the French imagination has drawn on bravura moments from the history of the armed forces to build a national military culture. This anthology is the result of a long-term project that brought together the best specialists in military history, and provides a full understanding of the richness and historical depth of these stories.

How can we trace the contours of a French school of military thought? How did France's geographical location influence its sensitivity to the combat environment? Did its precociously centralised organisation have an impact on the way it approached conflicts? Is there a clearer relationship with the offensive in French thinking than in that of other nations? How did the construction of a vast colonial empire lead the French to develop counter-insurgency thinking more than others? This collection of essays will provide readers with food for thought on French strategic thinking and how it has developed over the centuries.

From Brantôme to Richelieu, via the Chevalier de Folard and the Comte de Guibert to the "apocalypse generals" who devised France's nuclear strategy during the Gaullist era, the texts selected are presented here in notes that shed light on the historical context in which they were produced, and put each author's work into perspective.

Link to the book