Audiobook9 hours
At the Edge of the World: The Heroic Century of the French Foreign Legion
Written by Jean-Vincent Blanchard
Narrated by Julian Elfer
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
An aura of mystery, romance, and danger surrounds the French Foreign Legion, the all-volunteer corps of the French Army, founded in 1831. Famous for its physically grueling training in harsh climates, the legion fought in French wars from Mexico to Madagascar, Southeast Asia to North Africa.
In At the Edge of the World, historian Jean-Vincent Blanchard follows the legion's rise to fame during the nineteenth century-focusing on its campaigns in Indochina and especially in Africa-when the corps played a central role in expanding and protecting the French Empire. As France struggled to be a power capable of rivaling the British, the figure of the legionnaire came to represent the might and morale that would secure a greater, stronger nation.
Drawing from rare, archival memoirs and testimonies of legionnaires from the period and tracing the fascinating career of Hubert Lyautey, France's first resident-general in Morocco and a hero to many a legionnaire, At the Edge of the World chronicles the Foreign Legion at the height of its renown, when the corps and its archetypically handsome, moody, and marginalized recruits became both the symbols of a triumphant colonialism and the stuff of legend.
In At the Edge of the World, historian Jean-Vincent Blanchard follows the legion's rise to fame during the nineteenth century-focusing on its campaigns in Indochina and especially in Africa-when the corps played a central role in expanding and protecting the French Empire. As France struggled to be a power capable of rivaling the British, the figure of the legionnaire came to represent the might and morale that would secure a greater, stronger nation.
Drawing from rare, archival memoirs and testimonies of legionnaires from the period and tracing the fascinating career of Hubert Lyautey, France's first resident-general in Morocco and a hero to many a legionnaire, At the Edge of the World chronicles the Foreign Legion at the height of its renown, when the corps and its archetypically handsome, moody, and marginalized recruits became both the symbols of a triumphant colonialism and the stuff of legend.
Author
Jean-Vincent Blanchard
Jean-Vincent Blanchard is an associate professor of French and politics at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books published in France; this is his first book published in English.
Related to At the Edge of the World
Related audiobooks
Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fight For France and For Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Longest Afternoon: The 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Close to Freedom: A World War II Story of Peril and Betrayal in the Pyrenees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moral Imperative: 1972, Combat Rescue, and the End of America's War in Vietnam Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmong the Headhunters: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival in the Burmese Jungle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through The Wheat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Will Hold: The Story of USMC Legend Clifton B. Cates From Belleau Wood to Victory in the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Soldiers: Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Campaign: The Battle for Madagascar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bomb Group: The Eighth Air Force's 381st and The Allied Air Offensive Over Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Naval War in the Baltic, 1939-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sheer Misery: Soldiers in Battle in WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Break: The Greatest American WWII POW Escape Story Never Told Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shadows in the Jungle: The Alamo Scouts Behind Japanese Lines in World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5MacArthur's Air Force: American Airpower Over the Pacific and the Far East, 1941-51 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Duel of Eagles: The Classic Account of the Battle of Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock of the Marne: The American Soldiers Who Turned the Tide Against the Kaiser in World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Twilight Warriors: The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defense of Rorke's Drift Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghostriders 1968-1975: "Mors De Caelis" Combat History of the AC-130 Spectre Gunship, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Death Came Calling, But I Wasn't Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
European History For You
The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for At the Edge of the World
Rating: 3.4166666666666665 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
6 ratings0 reviews