The Most Remarkable Historical Testimonies: A graphic novel to enter history through the voices of those who lived it

From Thucydides' 5th-century BC funeral oration for Pericles to the 9/11 accounts collected by journalist Garrett M. Graff, and including Nelson Mandela's plea at the 1964 Rivonia Trial: The Most Significant Historical Testimonies, published by Le Robert, brings together 17 excerpts from letters, memoirs, diaries, autobiographical accounts, and trial transcripts. The book, authored by Soledad Bravi and Marie Bourboulou, is organized into five parts, each corresponding to a different writing style. Each text is accompanied by contextual information summarized in twelve points on a maximum of two pages, followed by a two-page spread devoted to the excerpt itself, and then a two-part analysis: "What makes this testimony significant?" and "Why does it resonate so strongly today?" "An airy layout, soft colors and drawings with lines that are both naive and precise complete the design."

From Mercy Otis Warren to Solzhenitsyn: famous and unknown voices on the world's great moments

Among the collected texts, the letter from American poet Mercy Otis Warren to John Adams in 1776 sheds light on the birth of the United States from the perspective of a committed woman (the first to publish a political and historical work in that country). Alexander Solzhenitsyn's *The Gulag Archipelago* reveals the Soviet forced labor camps through more than 200 testimonies. The memoirs of Marguerite de Valois bring to life the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Jung Chang recounts the Maoist Cultural Revolution in *Wild Swans*. Joseph Kessel's account of the Nuremberg trials, written for *France-Soir* in November 1945, is described as "paralyzing." Lesser-known voices are also present, such as those of the French soldiers of World War I or the doctor of Hiroshima, Michihiko Hachiya, in the aftermath of August 6, 1945. According to France Télévisions, the result is "an informative, well-documented comic book, accessible to older secondary school students, often poignant but also full of humor," and a very good way, in times of political and geopolitical tension, to avoid repeating history.