That Sweet Enemy brings both British wit (Robert Tombs is a British historian) and French panache (Isabelle Tombs is a French historian) to bear on three centuries of the history of Britain and France. From Waterloo to Chirac's slandering of British cooking, the authors chart this cross-channel entanglement and the unparalleled breadth of cultural, economic, and political influence it has wrought on both sides, illuminating the complex and sometimes contradictory aspects of this relationship—rivalry, enmity, and misapprehension mixed with envy, admiration, and genuine affection—and the myriad ways it has shaped the modern world. Written with wit and elegance, and illustrated with delightful images and cartoons from both sides of the Channel, That Sweet Enemy is a unique and immensely enjoyable history, destined to become a classic.

List of Illustrations List of Maps List of Figures AcknowledgementsIntroduction PART I: STRUGGLEChapter 1: Britain Joins Europe —The Sun King —William of Orange —Exiles: Huguenots and Jacobites Britain at the Heart of Europe, 1688–1748 —Malbrouck s’en va-t-en guerre —Fontenoy, May 11, 1745 France and the Young Chevalier, 1744–46 —Symbols The End of the Beginning —On His Most Christian Majesty’s Service Money: Waging War with GoldBritain: “Breaking windows with guineas”—Blowing Bubbles France: The Insolvent LandlordChapter 2: Thinking, Pleasing, Seeing —Portraying the Other: Rapin and Hamilton Voyages of Intellectual Discovery Travellers’ Tales —Le Blanc’s England —Mrs. Thrale and Madame Du Bocage Fashionable Feelings: The Age of Pamela and Julie—The Sincerest Form of Flattery—The Other PamelaLove, Hate and Ambivalence —Drawing a Lesson —Garrick’s French Dancers The French and Shakespeare: The Age of Voltaire Chapter 3: The Sceptre of the World Sugar and Slaves The Wealth of the Indies “A few acres of snow” The Seven Years War, 1756–63 —Perfidious Albion —Encouraging the Others Pitt and Choiseul Years of Victory, 1757–63 —Dead Heroes Taking Possession of the Globe Language: The Challenge to French Ascendancy Chapter 4: The Revenger’s Tragedy Choiseul Plans Revenge Taking the Great out of Britain: The Second War for America, 1776–83 —Enter Figaro —Revolutionary Aristocrats Saving Captain Asgill The Biter Bit, 1783–90 —Cricket: The Tour of ’89 Chapter 5: Ideas and Bayonets Blissful Dawn —Reflecting on Revolution —Cannibals and Heroes Jour de Gloire —Exiles: The Revolution Internal Injuries From Unwinnable War to Uneasy Peace —The First Kiss This Ten Years! Culture Wars Chapter 6: Changing the Face of the World Napoleonic Visions Earth’s Best Hopes? British Resistance, 1803–5 —No Common War —Relics of What Might Have Been The Whale and the Elephant The Continental System versus the Cavalry of St. George—Captives From the Tagus to the Berezina, 1807–12 Invasion, 1813–14 —Le Cimetière des Anglais The End of the Hundred Years War, 1815 —Echoes of Waterloo Part I: Conclusions and Disagreements Origins Culture Politics The Economy Europe The World Interlude: The View from St. Helena PART II: COEXISTENCE Chapter 7: Plucking the Fruits of Peace Our Friends the Enemy —The British in Paris —Fast Food à l’anglaise —Pau: Britain in Béarn Romantic Encounters —The French and Shakespeare: The Romantics King Cotton, Queen Silk —Navvies and “Knobsticks” Fog and Misery Ally or “Anti-France”? Chapter 8: The War That Never Was A Beautiful Dream: The First Entente Cordiale, 1841–46 “God bless the narrow sea”: From Revolution to Empire, 1848–52 —The Prince-President’s First Lady —Exiles: Hugo and the Stormy Voices of France “Such a faithful ally,” 1853–66 —Comrades in Arms —Brumagem Bombs for Bonaparte Tales of Two Cities —Englishness in Paris: The Dressmaker and the Whore —London through French Eyes Spectators of Disaster, 1870–71 —Exiles: After the “Terrible Year” Chapter 9: Decadence and Regeneration Into the Abysm —Pilgrims of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and Oscar Wilde —Depravity and Corruption Regeneration: Power and Empire —The Tunnel: False Dawn Education, Education, Education Putting Colour into French Cheeks Food and Civilization On the Brink, 1898–1902 —Exiles: Oscar Wilde and Émile Zola —magining the Enemy Back from the Brink: Towards a New Entente Cordiale, 1902–4 —“Vive Notre Bon Édouard!” Part II: Conclusions and Disagreements Interlude: Perceptions Origins: Race, Land, Climate Religion, Immorality and Perfidy Nature versus Civilization Masculinity and Femininity Materialism, Exploitation and Greed PART III: SURVIVALChapter 10: The War to End Wars From Entente to Alliance, 1904–14 The British and the Defence of France, 1914 Les Tommy and the French —“Bene and Hot” —“Le Foot”Stalemate and Slaughter, 1915–17 The Road to Pyrrhic Victory, 1918 Remembrance Chapter 11: Losing the Peace Paris and Versailles, 1918–19: A Tragedy of Disappointment—Clemenceau, a Disillusioned Anglophile —The Political Consequences of Mr. Keynes Estrangement, 1919–25 —The Tunnel: Bowing to Providence Mixed Feelings, 1919–39 —From Englishman in Paris to Frenchman in Hollywood Towards the Dark Gulf, 1929–39 Chapter 12: Finest Hours, Darkest Years The “Phoney War,” September 1939–May 1940 The Real Disaster, May–June 1940 —Dunkirk and the French, May 26–June 4 —“No Longer Two Nations”: June 16, 1940 —Mers el-Kébir Churchill and de Gaulle Bearing the Cross of Lorraine Feeding the FlameLiberation, 1943–44 Part III: Conclusions and Disagreements Between the Wars The Second World War Interlude: The French and Shakespeare: The Other French Revolution PART IV: REVIVALChapter 13: Losing Empires, Seeking RolesEuropean Visions, 1945–55 Imperial Debacle, 1956 European Revenge, 1958–79 —Higher, Faster, Dearer: The Concorde Complex Satisfactions of Grandeur and Pleasures of Decline —Je t’aime, moi non plus Chapter 14: Ever Closer Disunion A French or British Europe? Napoleon versus Adam Smith —France and the Falklands War —Thatcher and the Revolution, 1989 So Near and Yet So Far —The Tunnel: Breakthrough —Language: Voting with Your Tongue Size Matters —The Non-Identical Twins Europe’s Warrior Nations —Bangs and Bucks —Desperate to Be Friends: Celebrating the Entente Cordiale, 1904–2004 2005: Déjà Vu All Over Again Part IV: Conclusions and Disagreements Picking Up the Threads Notes Bibliography Index