The History Cafe

Last time we discussed Charles de Gaulle's life from his birth through to the beginning of World War II.  This time, we cover de Gaulle's participation in World War II and his political actions in the post-war period.  For more information, see Part I. In Part I, we began with a nice plate of cheese.  For this section, I recommend for the second plate of the meal a dish popular in de Gaulle's hometown of Lille in northern France: Carbonade Flamande - a kind of hearty beef stew with carrots or other vegetables.  Also popular in Belgium, where it is made with beer (it can be made with beer or wine depending on taste.) And lastly, a little bibliography on Charles de Gaulle and French History: Sowerwine, Charles. France since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. Gaulle, Charles de. The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998. Berstein, Serge, and Peter Morris. The Republic of de Gaulle 1958–1969.  Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Today on the History Cafe, we have part I of an extensive survey of the life of the French statesman and soldier, Charles de Gaulle. Our guest, Tim Little, served as the professor of history at Marlboro college for thirty-five years. He retired (more or less - he still teaches an occasional class) in 2009 and is now a professor emeritus.*  Tim has been interested in de Gaulle for some time and the talk uses de Gaulle as a sort of foil for understanding what it meant to be French and experience French history from the end of the 19th century until today.  De Gaulle died in 1970, but the republic he founded continues to this day with his fingerprints remain firmly a part of French political life.  The discussion was long enough that I have broken it up into two parts.  Part I begins with a brief background of the nineteenth century, and then discusses de Gaulle's family, the Dreyfus affair, World War I and some about the inter-war years and the early years of World War II.  Part II covers de Gaulle's management of the French resistance, his participation in the liberation of France, and his involvement in politics in the fourth and his founding of the fifth.  Here, today, is part I - part II will be ready in a little over a week, so check back. For today's dish, since this is a two parter, we will start with the appetizer today and the main course with part II.  As it was de Gaulle himself who purportedly asked, "How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?" I suggest a nice full charcuterie plate with at least a few of those many varieties for sampling... * And yes, just to note: it is his retirement that created my job, so I'm very grateful for that.

Today we have the assistant professor of medieval history from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Lauren Mancia.  Lauren works on monastic devotional practices and  culture in Normandy, specializing in the writings of the Abbot John of Fécamp (ca. 990-1078 A.D.)  In this podcast, she talks to us about a major shift in the understanding and relationship with Christ that began in the eleventh century.  Prior to that time, people tended to see Christ as more of a conquering hero, unafraid of death, and unsuffering on the cross.  After the shift to  what is known as "affective" piety, people began to emphasize Christ's humanity and his sufferings and used that as a way to find emotional closeness with the divine.  This fundamental way of viewing Christ is still with us and remains the emotional core of most of western Christianity to this day. Given the particularly penitential nature of today's subject, I would recommend a good reverential sandwich of plain bread and water for those who lean that way.  If you are feeling ill, weak, or not entirely reverential, you can also include some cheese or a hard boiled egg. In the podcast, we mention a few works of art and a couple of quotes.  Here are those images and quotes in the order in which they appear in the podcast for when you want to refer back to them. Quote One: We also mention a couple of quotes, starting with a prayer from the ninth century.  This prayer comes from a precum libelli and the translation is in Rachel Fulton's From Judgement to Passion (see the extra bibliography below): “Lord Jesus Christ, maker of the world, who—although shining in glory and coeternal and coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit—deigned to assume flesh from the immaculate virgin and suffered your glorious palms to be nailed on the gibbet of the cross, that you might break asunder the gates of hell and free the human race from death, have pity on me oppressed with evil deeds and the weight of my iniquities. Do not abandon me, most pious father, but indulge me in those things which I impiously bear. Hear me, prostrate before your most glorious and worshipful cross, so that in these days I should merit to stand by you, pure and pleasing in your sight, freed from all evil things, and consoled by your help, always my lord. Through you Jesus Christ, savior of the world.” Image One, a Spanish Crucifix: You can see the Met's own page about this artwork with complete descriptions Here. Quote Two: This quote comes from Lauren's own research on John of Fecamp.  It appears in Fécamp’s Forma precum digna scelerum confessio plena, edited in A Durham Book of Devotions by Thomas Bestul (pg. 35) and translated by Lauren herself: “Most merciful creator, look upon the humanity of your beloved Son, and take pity on the weakness of your frail creature. His naked breast gleamed white, his bloody side reddened, his stretched out innards dried out, the light of his eyes grew faint, his long arms stiffened, his marble legs hung down, a stream of holy blood moistened his pierced feet. Look, glorious father, at the torn limbs of your dear son, and remember with pity of what stuff I am made.” Quote Three: And lastly, a Prayer to Christ from the great Anselm of Canterbury himself, one of the founders of scholasticism, but also someone who clearly involved himself in the new modes of piety of his day.  The translation is by Benedicta Ward: "Would that I with happy Joseph, might have taken down my Lord from the cross, wrapped him in spiced grave-clothes and laid him in the tomb; or even followed after so that such a burial might not have been without my mourning. Would that with the blessed band of women I might have trembled at the vision of angels and have heard the news of the Lord’s Resurrection, news of my consolation, so much looked for, so much desired.”   Image Two, a German Pieta: The Met's page, again, is Here. Extra Bibliography

Hello, This is the very first podcast from the History Cafe.  If you google spices in medieval cuisine, you will find fairly prevalently the myth that spices appeared so often and so heavily in medieval food because they covered up the taste of rancid meat (sometimes you get a more subtle version stating that spices help preserve food and prevent rancidness to begin with, which is at least somewhat true.)  At any rate, more and more work demonstrates quite convincingly that this explanation simply does not do justice to what we know about medieval cuisine and their love of spices.  A lot of work, in particular, has been done by my own dissertation advisor, Paul Freedman, so I dedicate this inaugural podcast to him.  You can also see some of his excellent lectures online through the Yale Courses feed This podcast would probably be best enjoyed with a nice glass of hypocras, a crazy sweetened and spiced wine made with ingredients like ambergris and musk.  There are many recipes out there, so just pick your favorite. And seriously, the ambergris makes all the difference.  Pair it, perhaps, with another famed ambergris dish discussed by Paul Freedman, here. Extra Bibliography: Freedman, Paul.  Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination.  Yale University Press, 2009. Weiss Adamson, Melitta.  Food in Medieval Times.  Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. And feel free to e-mail me for plenty more if this isn't enough! The photo is the main spice rack at the World Spice Merchant just outside Pike's Place in Seattle.