No leader of modern times was more uniquely patriotic thanCharles de Gaulle. As founder and first president of the FifthRepublic, General de Gaulle saw himself as “carrying France on[his] shoulders.” <p>In his twenties, he fought for France in the trenches and at the epicbattle of Verdun. In the 1930s, he waged a lonely battle to enableFrance to better resist Hitler's Germany. Thereafter, he twice rescuedthe nation from defeat and decline by extraordinary displaysof leadership, political acumen, daring, and bluff, heading off civilwar and leaving a heritage adopted by his successors of right andleft.</p><p> Le Général, as he became known from 1940 on, appeared as if hewas carved from a single monumental block, but was in fact extremelycomplex, a man with deep personal feelings and recurrentmood swings, devoted to his family and often seeking reassurancefrom those around him. This is a magisterial, sweeping biography ofone of the great leaders of the twentieth century and of the countrywith which he so identified himself. Written with terrific verve,narrative skill, and rigorous detail, the first major work on de Gaullein fifteen years brings alive as never before the private man as wellas the public leader through exhaustive research and analysis.</p>