"Au Service de la France by Raymond Poincaré, published by Librairie Plon in Paris, is a monumental multi-volume memoir chronicling the French statesman's leadership during the First World War. The four volumes present here — L'Invasion 1914 (1928), Guerre de Siège 1915 (1931), Verdun 1916 (1931), and L'Année Troublée 1917 (1932) — offer a detailed, firsthand account of France's political and military ordeal as seen through the eyes of its wartime president. Poincaré provides a penetrating view of the shifting front lines, the trials of the government, and the tension between military command and civil authority. His narrative combines patriotic conviction with sober analysis, revealing the immense pressures of leadership as France endured invasion, attrition, and social strain during the Great War's most decisive years.
Written with clarity and gravitas, the series stands as both a personal testimony and a major historical document, illuminating the moral, strategic, and diplomatic challenges that shaped France's war effort. Poincaré's meticulous style, drawn from diaries and official correspondence, gives readers a rare window into cabinet deliberations, Allied relations, and the fragile unity of a nation under siege. These volumes will appeal to scholars of World War I, collectors of French political history, and readers interested in authentic, high-level insights into the leadership and endurance of France during one of its darkest and most defining eras."
