MACRON BRAND SAID TO BE TOXIC 2024: 2/4 Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation, by Sophie Pedder. Hardcover – August 14, 2018
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
He emerged from nowhere to seize the presidency, defeat populism and upend French party politics. Who is Emmanuel Macron? How far can he really change France?
In Revolution Française, Sophie Pedder examines the first year in office of France's youngest and most exciting president in modern times, with unique perspective from her time as head of The Economist's Paris bureau. President Emmanuel Macron's vision for France is far more radical than many realize. His remarkable ascent from obscurity to the presidency is both a dramatic story of personal ambition and the tale of a wounded once-proud country in deep need of renewal. What shaped this enigmatic character, the precociously bright student and talented networker from northern France; the philosophy graduate and Rothschild banker who married his school drama teacher? How did a political outsider manage to defy the unwritten rules of the Fifth Republic and secure the presidency at his first attempt? And what are the underlying ideas behind his vision?
This book chronicles Macron's remarkable rise from independent outsider to the Élysée Palace, situating the achievement in a broader context: France's slide into self-doubt, political gridlock and a seeming reluctance to embrace change; the roots of populism and discontent; the fractures caused by globalization and the Le Pen factor. Looking back on the young president's dramatic first year in power, with analysis of his key reforms and lofty ambitions, it asks how far it is possible for Macron to reinvent a conservative nation uneasy about embracing the future. Can the man nicknamed 'Jupiter' really return France to its former greatness, or will he, by the time his mandate expires, end up as just another side note in political history? Punctuated with first-hand conversations and reporting, this book takes on all of these questions, concluding with a fascinating and exclusive interview with Macron recorded in early 2018. Pedder's riveting, and essential, book will be one of the most captivating political books of this year.
1792 JACOBIN CLUB
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSi and the world. I'm John Bachelor. Professor Nicholas Thomas, |
| 0:09.4 | professor of historical anthropology at Cambridge University, also the director of archaeology and anthropology |
| 0:15.9 | museum at Cambridge, his new book as Voyagers. |
| 0:19.6 | And we plunge into the 19th century and are amazed that a chieftain significant that he's a leadership position in the Cook Islands, this is Polynesia, is able to direct a European sailing master without use of |
| 0:38.7 | European tools. |
| 0:40.4 | Now we go back to the beginning beginning, at least until the retreat of the last ice. |
| 0:45.0 | This is about 11,000 years ago and we're not in Polynesia, that's well to the east. We're not in Melanesia, we're in Formosa Taiwan now and the line, |
| 0:59.0 | the north-south line called Wahlacia. |
| 1:02.3 | Forgive my pronunciation, professor. |
| 1:05.6 | What is it that we understand about the voyagers from the mainland into and crossing |
| 1:11.6 | Wallassia into Melanesia? into and crossing Wallacia |
| 1:16.8 | there are two stages to this incredible chapter |
| 1:20.9 | in human history and it is worth underscoring just how incredible this story is because otherwise |
| 1:30.9 | since the beginnings of human history, |
| 1:33.8 | since the beginnings of our species, |
| 1:36.8 | people have been continent-based. |
| 1:39.6 | So they, of course, |
| 1:49.4 | anatomically modern humans evolve in Africa they settle Europe Asia and the Americas via a land bridge, so people get around almost everywhere in the world |
| 1:58.8 | on foot through gradual migrations. |
| 2:03.0 | But towards the end of the Pleistocene, |
| 2:07.7 | towards the end of the last great Ice Age, |
| 2:11.4 | people in Southeast Asia start to move beyond land, initially through short distance crossings. |
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