MACRON BRAND SAID TO BE TOXIC 2024: 3/4 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
⏱️ 14 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.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a |
| 0:05.0 | CBS I in the world. I'm John Bachelor visiting with Professor Nicholas Thomas. His new book is Voyager, |
| 0:11.0 | The Settlement of the Pacific. |
| 0:13.4 | He's a professor of historical anthropology at the University of Cambridge and that's what we're doing here. |
| 0:18.0 | History, but near history. |
| 0:20.3 | The mystery of Oceania begins with Captain Cook's first, second, and third voyage. |
| 0:29.0 | Present mysteries to be solved. |
| 0:31.0 | Professor, who was Captain Cook? Why he was there? Why was he in the |
| 0:35.2 | Society Islands in 1768? What was his mission? |
| 0:42.0 | So Cook was a naval man, but he was above all an exceptionally accomplished surveyor, and that's why the Royal Society and the Admiralty selected him in the 1760s to lead an expedition. |
| 1:02.2 | The ship was the endeavor, they went to Tahiti, and the core purpose, certainly |
| 1:08.9 | the ostensible purpose was the observation of the transit of Venus and that observation that |
| 1:15.8 | astronomical observation was scientifically important it was part of a |
| 1:21.2 | coordinated set of observations and the Royal Society and colleagues internationally |
| 1:28.1 | hoped to be able to measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun. But Cook was also exploring the South Pacific because the British, |
| 1:38.9 | among other European nations, were very interested to try and establish whether there was a great southern |
| 1:45.4 | continent. They thought that a great southern continent might be a previously unknown land like China or India that could be a key trading |
| 1:56.7 | partner a huge source of wealth. So the expeditions were about knowledge and geographic discovery, but they were certainly also |
| 2:07.6 | about empire and the scope for trade and colonization. |
| 2:13.0 | On board was Joseph Banks. |
| 2:14.7 | Who was he? |
| 2:15.7 | And what does he leave us to know about this first voyage? |
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