France and the French: A Modern History Book

Everyone tries to pigeonhole France. The vast numbers who travel there or who discuss the French from across the Atlantic produce judgments that express everything from adulation to irritation. France and the French, it seems, remain resolutely mysterious and inexplicable. In this elegantly written and exhaustively researched narrative history, Rod Kedward brings to life the great, and often terrible, dramas of modern France--the two cataclysmic wars, the Algerian disaster, the student and worker revolt of 1968--but also explores the special worlds of the workplace, immigration, minorities, the role of women, and the relationship of politics to place, everyday life, and collective memory. Judgments will still be made and pigeonholes found, but the rich narratives of this book anchor French identities firmly in their own impassioned history.Read More