question: Guy Pedroncini wrote the biography of this man, who ranks as France's oldest head of state?
answer: Philippe Pétain
context: Title: Philippe Pétain
  Passage: Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain (] ) or Marshal Pétain ("Maréchal Pétain"), was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and later served as the Chief of State of Vichy France also known as Nationalist France or the French State "(Chef de l'État Français)", from 1940 to 1944.  Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state.  Today, he is considered the French equivalent to his contemporary Quisling in Norway.  Because of his outstanding military leadership in World War I, particularly during the Battle of Verdun, Pétain was viewed as a national hero in France and was not executed.  He was sometimes nicknamed "The Lion of Verdun".
  Title: Jonny Steinberg
  Passage: Jonny Steinberg is a South African writer and scholar.  He is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa’s transition to democracy.  Two of them, "Midlands" (2002), about the murder of a white South African farmer, and "The Number" (2004), a biography of a prison gangster, won South Africa’s premier non-fiction award, the "Sunday Times" Alan Paton Award.  In 2013, he was among the inaugural winners of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes, awarded by Yale University.  Steinberg’s books also include "Three-Letter Plague" ("Sizwe’s Test" in the United States), which chronicles a young man’s journey through South Africa’s AIDS pandemic.  It was a "Washington Post" Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, among others.  Steinberg is also the author of "Thin Blue" (2008), an exploration of the unwritten rules of engagement between South African civilians and police, and "Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York" (2011), about the Liberian civil war and its aftermath in an exile community in New York and described as an "extraordinary, stylistically varied mix of reportage, history and biography".  Steinberg's 2015 book, "A Man of Good Hope", was described as "superb" by "Observer" reviewer Ian Birrell, who wrote: "On the surface, it is simply the biography of a lonely young migrant who dreams of a decent life, hardening his shell and hustling to survive in hostile human environments.  Yet it is really an epic African saga that chronicles some fundamental modern issues such as crime, human trafficking, migration, poverty and xenophobia, while giving glimpses into the Somali clan system, repression in Ethiopia and lethal racism in townships."
  Title: Shimon Peres
  Passage: Shimon Peres ( ; Hebrew: שמעון פרס‎ ‎ ,    ; born Szymon Perski; August 2, 1923 – September 28, 2016) was an Israeli politician who served both as ninth President of Israel, (2007 to 2014) and Prime Minister of Israel, as well as Interim Prime Minister.  He was a member of twelve cabinets in a political career spanning 70 years.  Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, was in office continuously until 2007, when he became President, being in that role for another seven years.  At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state.  He was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation.
  Title: Maurice Floquet
  Passage: Maurice Noël Floquet (Poissons, 25 December 1894 – Montauroux, 10 November 2006) was, at age 111, France's oldest man on record and was one of the last surviving French veterans of World War I.  He was, at the age of 111 years and 320 days, France's longest-lived soldier ever.  Moreover, Floquet was France's oldest living man for more than four years.  France's oldest person was a woman, Jeanne Calment, aged 122 years 164 days when she died, who still remains the oldest verified person ever, is more than a decade older than Floquet.
  Title: Tôn Đức Thắng
  Passage: Tôn Đức Thắng (August 20, 1888 – March 30, 1980) was the second and final president of North Vietnam and the first president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under the rule of Lê Duẩn.  The position of president is ceremonial and Thắng was never a major policymaker or even a member of the Politburo, Vietnam's ruling council.  He served as president, initially of North Vietnam from September 2, 1969, and later of a united Vietnam, until his death in 1980.  He was a key Vietnamese nationalist and Communist political figure, was chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee 1955–1960 and served as the vice president to Hồ Chí Minh from 1960 to 1969.  At the time of death at age 91, he was the oldest head of a state with the title "president" (subsequently surpassed by Hastings Banda).
  Title: Guy Pedroncini
  Passage: Guy Pedroncini was a French academic and military historian specialising in the First World War, and notable as the biographer of Philippe Pétain and for his work on the French army mutinies of 1917.  He was born in Paris on 17 May 1924 and died on 11 July 2006, at the age of 82.
  Title: Presidency of Nelson Mandela
  Passage: Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, and former political prisoner, was elected to the presidency of South Africa in 1994, following which he served one term in office (1994–99).  He was the first non-white head of state in South African history, as well as the first to take office following the dismantling of the apartheid system and the introduction of multiracial democracy.  Mandela was also the oldest head of state in South Africa's history, taking office at the age of seventy-five.
  Title: Josefa Iloilo
  Passage: Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, CF, MBE, MSD, KStJ (29 December 1920 – 6 February 2011) was the President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009, excluding a brief period from 5 December 2006 until 4 January 2007 (see below).  He held the traditional title of "Tui Vuda", the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast.  Like many Fijian people, he rarely used his surname and was known simply as Josefa Iloilo.  He announced on 28 July 2009 that he would be leaving office on 30 July.  At the age of 88, he was the world's oldest head of state.
  Title: Pete Carroll
  Passage: Peter Clay "Pete" Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL).  He is a former head coach of the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and the USC Trojans of the University of Southern California (USC).  Carroll is one of only three football coaches who have won both a Super Bowl and a college football national championship.  Carroll is the oldest head coach currently working in the NFL.
  Title: Asghar Sharafi
  Passage: Asghar Sharafi (Persian: اصغر شرفی‎ ‎ , born 22 December 1942) is an Iranian football coach and former player who was head coach of Mes Sarcheshmeh.  He has coached many teams such as Esteghlal, Iranjavan, Bargh Shiraz, Pegah and Ekbatan.  He is one of the oldest head coaches in Iranian football history.
citations: Philippe Pétain Guy Pedroncini