France

During the Franco-Prussian War a British wine merchant was imprisoned in Cologne, accused of being a spy. The public clamoured for the government to secure his release, but wartime diplomacy was not so straightforward. 

Josephine Baker’s induction into the Pantheon is both a cause for celebration and a prompt to explore France’s progressive values.

The extraordinary insurrections of Gustave Paul Cluseret.

The recently discovered chronicle of an opinionated, elderly aristocrat provides a vivid portrayal of Paris during the most febrile days of the French Revolution.

Revolutionary soldier or tyrannical emperor? The question is as pertinent now as when Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on remote Saint Helena in 1821. 

Saint or sinner? Recent demonstrations in the American city of St. Louis are just the latest battle for the legacy of a medieval French king. 

The belief that you are what you eat emerged in 19th-century France, where the pleasures of the table were sautéed with philosophy and medicine. 

Toussaint Louverture’s lonely death in a French prison cell was not an unfortunate tragedy but a cruel story of betrayal.

A chivalric form of planned battle took place on 26 March 1351.

Since the late 19th century, French politics has provided a testing ground for right-wing populism.