If you're interested in France
Jan. 30th, 2008 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magentaSixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. Sourcebooks, 2003. The Minneapolis Public Library owns this book.
An excellent study of current and historical France, very readable, yet comprehensive. Subtitled, "why we love France but not the French" this book discusses how modern France has come to be, and how it works, as well as any outsider can explain. The authors have the advantage of being Canadian journalists who are bi-lingual, and who spent two years in France writing this volume.
France is an old country, with a complex past. The authors remind us that the French are an aboriginal people, in that some the people who live there, and some of the culture, can be traced back for hundreds if not thousands of years. The first section of the book is mostly about history, including the Algerian war, which was pivotal to modern France, but is often ignored today. In the second section, they examine the paradoxes of French government, education, health care, cuisine, economy and so forth. For example, while a democracy, the government is very differently organized and run from the way it is in the U.S. or Britain; this is not clearly understood by most Americans. Finally, in the last section, they put France in perspective, both European and global.
Truly exceptionally well done. Highly recommended.
An excellent study of current and historical France, very readable, yet comprehensive. Subtitled, "why we love France but not the French" this book discusses how modern France has come to be, and how it works, as well as any outsider can explain. The authors have the advantage of being Canadian journalists who are bi-lingual, and who spent two years in France writing this volume.
France is an old country, with a complex past. The authors remind us that the French are an aboriginal people, in that some the people who live there, and some of the culture, can be traced back for hundreds if not thousands of years. The first section of the book is mostly about history, including the Algerian war, which was pivotal to modern France, but is often ignored today. In the second section, they examine the paradoxes of French government, education, health care, cuisine, economy and so forth. For example, while a democracy, the government is very differently organized and run from the way it is in the U.S. or Britain; this is not clearly understood by most Americans. Finally, in the last section, they put France in perspective, both European and global.
Truly exceptionally well done. Highly recommended.
