A History of France

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Chapter I covers the ground pretty fast, taking us from the Gauls and Julius Caesar to Charlemagne, about eight centuries. This provocative book, in conjunction with its acclaimed predecessor, French Fascism: The First Wave, demolishes the notion that fascism never took hold in France. The book opens with the author's memory of meeting de Gaulle and closes with his reflections on French culture.

Moving through the Merovingians and the Carolingians, we see the start of the development of the modern nation of France in a series of Kings based out of Paris. Ever since then he had a long association with the country and, indeed, this book reads much like a love letter to France. Since its first publication to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, this Oxford History has established itself as the Revolution's most authoritative and comprehensive one-volume history in English, and has recently been translated into Chinese. 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. De Gaulle biographer and one of Britain’s leading historians of modern France, Julian Jackson, talks us through some key books to get a sense of France’s wartime leader and president, Charles de Gaulle.

But listening to this book makes one wonder what the image of history is like for people who only read popular histories, which are, almost without exception, massively conservative.

The second half covers the French Revolution, Civil Wars and the 2 World wars till the liberation of France from Nazi occupation in 1944. While the stories are entertaining, you feel the book is focused more on kings and emperors and their personal affairs than politics of the time. His stated reason for ending with WW II is that he has memories of the people and events, so the story is no longer history. As an American, I learned the French supported us in our Revolution against the British, and went on to have a bloody revolution of their own. This is a lengthy tome at 400 pages but fortunately it is not as dry as dust, it is an interesting read.This 19th century attitude and perspective are explained by and, to a degree, can be excused because of the author’s age, of course. The social and political development of France has been strongly contested ever since the country finally became a republic for good in 1870. This is an excellent way to teach the facts, especially if you are about to visit France for the first time, without being preached at. In this provocative study, Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation-a nation where reality and myth commingle to confound understanding-has dealt with les .

From the Liberation purges to the Barbie trial, France has struggled with the memory of the Vichy experience: a memory of defeat, occupation, and repression. The Second Empire lasted longer than any French regime since 1789, yet most historical accounts of the government of Napoleon III have been overshadowed by the knowledge of its disastrous and tragic end. Norwich also remains to the last a thoroughly genial and humane guide, but one not afraid to judge where judgements are deserved – and though one might not always agree with him, nor does he ever seem unfair or precipitous, or engaged in special pleading.There is so much delicious information about French food, history,and culture here that you’ll be tempted to polish off the feast in great gulps. Not the first John Julius Norwich book to open with him saying it was probably his last – but alas, this time he was right. With his final book, John Norwich; who passed away just about the time this was published, once again delivers a very readable and entertaining look at history.

Along the way, he introduces a variety of regents, from Clovis I to Napoleon III, with 18 Louises in between, plus an odd duck named Dagobert I, who wore his trousers inside out. Historical fiction offers us emotional insight into impactful historic events and an immersive sense of time and place, says David Lawday, the longtime Economist foreign correspondent and author of a new novel set during the Siege of Paris in 1870. No history of France can be complete without Paris, and this is the best account of that city, told adroitly by a specialist who conveys his enthusiasm well. We have spoken to several French experts including Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, a leading philosopher and sociologist about books on State, Power and Violence and Thomas Piketty, an economist, gave recommendations on the best books on historical change and economic ideology. One of the most dramatic chapters in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, the Commune of 1871 was an eclectic revolutionary government that held power in Paris across eight weeks between 18 March and 28 May.The Eighteenth Brumaire, November 9, 1799: with France in political and economic turmoil, a group of disaffected politicians enlisted the talented general Napoleon Bonaparte to lead a coup d'etat and . Even the title is misleading: It is not a history of France, but a history of French kings, emperors and presidents. 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? Here, Professor Richard Vinen of King's College London recommends five books that will help you understand modern France, all written in a golden age of French historical writing. I have already found myself going back to this book to refresh my memory on a particular event or revisit one of his better turns of phrase.