Free Republic

The myth of eternal Franco-American friendship is fair game. John J. Miller, a journalist with National Review, and Mark Molesky, assistant professor of history at Seton Hall University, offer a counter-myth: that France has directed unstinting malice against America from the beginning. The book opens with a blood-curdling narrative of the Deerfield massacre (1704), when Indians abetted by French-Canadian authorities attacked English settlers in western Massachusetts. They killed men, women, and children, scalped some of the victims and ate some of their flesh, and abducted hostages. The writing has verve, and the reader’s face tingles with anger.But Miller/Molesky’s account is...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is John J. Miller, co-author of Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France.   FP: Mr. Miller, welcome to Frontpage Interview. It is a pleasure to have you here.   Miller: Thank you. I’m an admirer of your website.   FP: What motivated you to write this book?   Miller: The most immediate influence was the recent unpleasantness with France over Iraq, but a deeper motivation was a desire to look at the pervasive myth of Franco-American friendship. If you listen to the commentary about relations between the United States and France,...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version December 10, 2004, 10:37 a.m. Just Say NonFrom the November 8, 2004, issue of National Review. By Arthur Herman Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France by John J. Miller and Mark Molesky (Doubleday, 304 pp., $24.95) Why are relations between France and the United States so bad these days? After reading this book, one might be excused for wondering when they were ever good. Certainly not since the American Revolution, is the final verdict, and not really even then. Our...

Back in school, you may have read a bit about the 1779 naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and H.M.S. Serapis. That's the one where Captain John Paul Jones shouted, "I have not yet begun to fight!" when the British ordered his surrender. But you probably weren't taught -- at least I wasn't -- that one reason it was such a dogged battle was the "help" Jones got from his French allies. At first a French ship called the, ahem, Alliance refused to aid Jones in the fight. Later, it fired on Jones, not the Brits -- and not by...