…..
A Royal Veto Keeps Abortion Illegal in Monaco
New Lines Magazine, December 12, 2025
Women from Monaco may cross into neighboring France to obtain an abortion, as they have for decades, but within the borders of the Principality, the procedure will remain out of reach — prohibited not by medicine, lawmakers or public opinion, but by the monarchy’s religious architecture. Read
…..
Even Before the Louvre Heist, France Had Been Robbed
New Lines Magazine, October 23, 2025
The Louvre heist shocked France, but earlier cuts in state-funded culture and decades of neglect had already stripped museums across the country of the means to protect the country’s heritage. Read
…..
Gadhafi, Sarkozy and Flight 772
New Lines Magazine, October 6, 2025
To truly understand why the Libyan affair will have Nicolas Sarkozy sleeping in jail for criminal conspiracy, we must go back to a 1989 terror attack, and to the families who have carried its weight ever since. Read
…..
Four Decades After His Imprisonment, France Can’t Stop Fighting Over Georges Abdallah
New Lines Magazine, July 25, 2025
“Once a terrorist, always a terrorist?” The question has hovered over Georges Ibrahim Abdallah during his four decades in prison — not least because many do not believe the Lebanese militant ever was one. With his release, France is once again fiercely debating what his incarceration means. Read
…..
A Historian Surveys the Wreckage in Gaza
Jacobin Magazine, July 16, 2025
French historian of the Middle-East Jean-Pierre Filiu has visited Gaza many times — but he had to make his most recent visit in December clandestinely. Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book, A Historian in Gaza, is a devastating eye-witness and historical account of the destruction of Gazan society. Read
…..
Womb for Improvement — A History of Medical Instruments
New Lines Magazine: In Focus, February 20, 2025
My 2024 piece on the tenaculum forceps, adapted from a Civil War-era bullet extractor, was made into a video article. Watch
..
Window to the Womb — Ultrasound and the Emergence of the ‘Fetal Personhood’ Movement
New Lines Magazine, October 25, 2024
In 1984, a graphic anti-abortion film turned ultrasound into a political weapon, casting the fetus as a victim. That “window to the womb” triggered a dramatic shift in the U.S. abortion debate, reshaping public perception of fetal life and death—and laid the groundwork for modern fetal personhood laws. Read
…..
The French Left Is United, Not for the First Time
New Lines Magazine, July 5, 2024
Just a few days after Macron’s explosive dissolution of the National Assembly, 25 parties on the French left chose unity, forming the New Popular Front to counter the risk of a far-right majority. But what, if anything, can be learned from the first Popular Front of the 1930s? Read
…..
Où sont-ils? How Argentina’s Disappeared Took Center Stage in Paris
New Lines Magazine, August 2, 2024 [with Phineas Rueckert]
Some three decades after the French Resistance had found its foothold in Buenos Aires, the Argentinian Resistance found its own in Paris. This iteration was bold, colorful and — in perhaps stereotypically Latin American form — theatrical. Read
…..
¡Viva la Resistencia! How Exiles in Argentina Shaped France’s Resistance to Nazi Occupation
New Lines Magazine, June 7, 2024 [with Phineas Rueckert]
After the Nazis marched into France in 1940, a French veteran living almost 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires started a small bulletin to counter fascist ideology — and sparked what would become one of the largest Free French resistance movements in the world. Read
…..
At Your Cervix — The Medical Instrument Behind 135 Years of Women’s Pain
New Lines Magazine, May 24, 2024
In 1889, French surgeon Samuel Pozzi, inspired by an American Civil War-era bullet extractor, invented an instrument to ease gynecological exams and provide better care for women. Despite causing debilitating pain, it is still used worldwide 135 years later. Read
…..
4 avril 1944 : Quand le Parti communiste français entrait au gouvernement
L’Humanité Magazine, 11 avril 2024
Le 4 avril 1944, après de longs mois de négociations, deux ministres communistes sont nommés au Comité français de libération nationale. Pour la première fois de son histoire, le Parti communiste français devient un parti de gouvernement… sous de Gaulle ! Lire
…..
Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer : les débuts médiatiques d’une pionnière de la transidentité
Retronews, 11 avril 2024
Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer naît assignée homme en 1909. Militante pionnière de la transidentité dès les années 1960, elle se fait d’abord connaître dans l’entre-deux-guerres pour de menus larcins qui, alliés à la personnalité de l’accusée, font les gorges chaudes des journaux. Lire
…..
L’histoire de Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer, pionnière de la cause trans
Têtu• Magazine, 29 mars 2024
Fondatrice dès 1965 de la première association trans en France, Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer eut une vie rocambolesque qui la mena des champs de bataille à la prison, puis aux cabarets de Paris où elle a connu Coccinelle et Bambi. Lire
…..
Argentine : les Mères de la place de Mai menacées de disparition par Javier Milei
Causette, 26 mars 2024
Ce dimanche 24 mars, à Buenos Aires, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de manifestant·es se sont rassemblé·es pour dire leur soutien aux Mères de la place de Mai, qui recherchent inlassablement leurs enfants disparu·es pendant la dictature. Pour la première fois depuis plus de quarante ans, leur mouvement est menacé par le gouvernement négationniste de Javier Milei, qui tente de les bâillonner et a annulé leur émission Madres de la Plaza. Lire
…..
Five Centuries Ago, France Came to America
France-Amérique Magazine, March 2024
This is the story of two discoveries. The first took place in March 1524, when an explorer, hired by King Francis I to find a sailing route to China, stumbled across the American East Coast. The second was just over 75 years ago, when this forgotten chapter in transatlantic history was uncovered. This is the story of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the sailor who never reached Asia, but became the first European to set foot on the site of the future city of New York. Read
…..
The Merci Train, Laying the Tracks of French-American Friendship
France-Amérique Magazine, February 2024
A granite plaque used to be set into Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes, a former testament to its passage down this avenue. But who still remembers the “Merci Train,” sent by France to the United States 75 years ago? Between World War II and the Cold War, this convoy of symbolic gifts renewed cultural diplomacy between our two countries. Read
…..
Eugene Bullard, a Pilot’s Struggle for Freedom
France-Amérique Magazine, February 2024
He flew for liberty, equality, and fraternity. This grandson of Georgia slaves volunteered for the Foreign Legion during World War I and became the first African American fighter pilot, a hero of French aviation – before being disgraced, sidelined, and forgotten by his native country. Read
…..
Chamonix 1924: Inventing the Winter Olympics
France-Amérique Magazine, January 2024
One hundred years ago, 258 athletes from 16 countries and 10,000 spectators flocked to the French Alps for an event that would go down in international sporting history: the first Winter Olympics! In the run-up to Paris 2024 and the 2030 Winter Games, which will also be held in France, we take a look back at twelve days of sports and diplomacy. Read
…..
Hollywood Takes on the Napoleonic Legend
France-Amérique Magazine, January 2024
Nearly 200 years after his death, Napoleon remains an ever-present source of fascination and controversy. Ridley Scott’s biopic has catapulted the Emperor’s face and complex legacy onto buses, buildings, and movie screens across the world. To sort myths from facts, we sat down with Princeton historian and Napoleon biographer David Bell, who investigates what he calls the “Napoleonic cult” and the Emperor’s lasting hold on the collective imagination. Read
…..
Pierre Cartier, the Man Who Made Jewelry for American Presidents
France-Amérique Magazine, December 2023
This is the story of three brothers and an empire. To sell his jewelry in the United States, Pierre Cartier mingled with celebrities, titans of industry, and presidents, and created a network of alliances. During World War II, he stood with Pétain and Roosevelt before supporting de Gaulle. Read
…..
Betsy Jolas, a Finely Tuned French-American Life
France-Amérique Magazine, October 2023
She learned her scales between Paris, New York City, and Vermont, composed more than 250 pieces played by the world’s greatest orchestras, and spent time with James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Joan Mitchell. France-Amérique met French-American composer Betsy Jolas, a contemporary music pioneer who, at the age of 97, still creates with the same intensity. Read
…..
New York Fashion Week’s Transatlantic Heritage
France-Amérique Magazine, September 2023
From September 8 to 13, the fashion elite will descend upon Bryant Park for the latest edition of New York Fashion Week. Yet many may be surprised to learn that this event was founded in part because of World War II. Eighty years ago, finding themselves unable to make their usual trip to Paris, American designers organized their own week of shows. Read
…..
Chartreuse, Victim of Its Own Success in the U.S.
France-Amérique Magazine, July-August 2023
Catapulted into the spotlight by the cocktail renaissance, this mysterious liqueur made by monks in Isère has gained a huge following in America. But the holy men of the Chartreuse Mountains have decided to ignore skyrocketing demand to focus on prayer and avoid overharvesting the 130 different plants, herbs, and spices used in a recipe kept secret for more than 250 years. A story of a French-American shortage, pitting monastic life against capitalism. Read
…..
La Marseillaise, a Taste of Free France in Manhattan
France-Amérique Magazine, July-August 2023
Where could one dance to accordion music, meet fellow French comrades-in-arms, or bump into Marlene Dietrich, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jean Gabin? La Marseillaise, of course ! This community center and restaurant, open from 1943 to 1946, was a Gallic enclave on the East Side, serving both as a makeshift mess hall and a political club supporting General de Gaulle. Read
…..
Alexander Calder, an Artist Fighting for Free France
France-Amérique Magazine, June 2023
In 1942, the American sculptor signed up for the Marine Corps, only to see his application rejected. Refusing to take no for an answer, he chose to contribute to fight for the Liberation of France through art. He designed an impressive mobile sporting the colors of the French flag and a Cross of Lorraine – the symbol of General de Gaulle. This was just one of several acts of political activism undertaken by this “adopted Frenchman.” Read
…..
The Battle of New York and the Birth of France-Amérique
France-Amérique Magazine, May 2023
The very first issue of France-Amérique was published on May 23, 1943. At the time, it was a deeply political newspaper. Against the backdrop of clashing opinions within New York City’s French community, the new weekly clearly stated its intentions: to raise awareness of the Free French cause among Americans, and to support the resistance effort organized by General de Gaulle. Read
…..
Iconic by France-Amérique – The 80th Anniversary Issue
France-Amérique editions, 2023
[author] This year France-Amérique celebrates 80 years ! What better way to mark such a milestone than with some carefully chosen words? With this in mind, we read through our archive, identified 80 significant terms, and created an iconic, quirky, pop-inspired special edition, giving you the very best of France in the United States.
…..
Pierre Laval, a Nazi “Puppet” in New York City
France-Amérique, 27 January 2023
Eighty years after Pierre Laval created the Milice Française, a plaque in Manhattan commemorating the man behind the Vél’ d’Hiv Roundup and France’s collaboration with Nazi Germany is still relatively unknown. As is another one honoring Marshal Pétain. Read
…..
1940 ! Paroles de rebelles
Éditions Lienart, septembre 2020
Dans le cadre de « l’année de Gaulle », le musée de l’Ordre de la Libération s’interroge sur le « mystère de l’engagement » en donnant la parole aux pionniers de la Résistance : les Compagnons de la Libération. Catalogue d’exposition sous la direction de Vladimir Trouplin, Diane de Vignemont, et Lionel Dardenne. Acheter
Diane de VIGNEMONT 