Being the son of Duff Cooper, for whom the title Viscount Norwich of Aldrich in the County of Sussex was created in 1952, the author casually drops the names of de Gaulle and Winston Churchill, men he had met through his father when he was a teenager.

Gwynne Lewis' history opens with a full analysis of all the components of traditional France, including political and religious structures, the seigneurial system, the bourgeoisie and the poor. Family welfare embraced an industrial model in which class distinctions and employer control predominated.

All of his time as President of France is left out, including major events such as the Algerian War and of course, 1968. A bold new assessment of how the violence, racist nationalism, and grief aroused in 1914-18 changed the course of historyTo many, the years of the Great War seemed to signal Europe's collective suicide. In addition to the public lives of the various rulers, the author give a peek at their private ones as well. The digital review copy I received didn’t have any maps or pictures but the physical copy is said to be well illustrated, and has maps, notes and suggestions for Further Reading which will surely add immense value to the book. This provocative book, in conjunction with its acclaimed predecessor, French Fascism: The First Wave, demolishes the notion that fascism never took hold in France.

As Charles de Gaulle ended his radio address to the French nation in June 1940, listeners must have felt a surge of patriotism tinged with uncertainty. The first and most obvious question to ask about this book is: why do we need a new history of France? Arguably Debord is the most important French philosophical export of the past 30 years – a fact now recognised in France: Debord and his influence on the outside world are part of the national curriculum. Work and Revolution in France is particularly appropriate for students of French history interested in the crucial revolutions that took place in 1789, 1830, and 1848. The real question, unanswered in both books, is not what the French think, but what they will do next.Another details the prodigious number of byblows managed by Augustus the Strong – though I was surprised there wasn't room for one on the peculiar delusions of Marshal Blucher (which reminds me, how had I never registered the name of Napoleon's subordinate Marshal Grouchy before? From frowning Roman generals and belligerent Gallic chieftains, to Charlemagne (hated by generations of French children taught that he invented schools) through Marie Antoinette and the storming of the Bastille to Vichy, the Resistance and beyond, FRANCE is packed with heroes and villains, adventures and battles, romance and revolution. Winner of the 2002 Berkshire Prize, presented by the Berkshire Conference of Women HistoriansFabricating Women examines the social institution of the seamstresses' guild in France from the time of Louis XIV to the Revolution.

Here Vincent Serrano-Guerra, author of a book for learning French that focuses on the 20,000 words that are the same in French and English, explains how best to set about it and recommends some books that'll also get you familiar with French culture. Traversing the cuisines of France’s most famous cities as well as its underexplored regions, the book is enriched by the “authors’ friendly accessibility that makes these stories so memorable” ( The New York Times Book Review). Incorporating the newest interpretations of past events, Sowerwine seamlessly integrates culture, gender, . In this important contribution both to the study of social protest and to French social history, Roger Gould breaks with previous accounts that portray the Paris Commune of 1871 as a continuation of the class struggles of the 1848 Revolution. Part one sets the syndicalist movement against its historical background, pointing to the forces which helped to shape the attitudes of the French worker, French political culture, economic developments, the influence .A new edition of James Collins's acclaimed synthesis that challenged longstanding views of the origins of modern states and absolute monarchy through an analysis of early modern Europe's most important continental state.