Product Description
A magisterial new history of French society between the end of the middle ages and the Revolution by one of the world's leading authorities on early modern France. Using colorful examples and incorporating the latest scholarship, William Beik conveys the distinctiveness of early modern society and identifies the cultural practices that defined the lives of people at all levels of society. Painting a vivid picture of the realities of everyday life, he reveals how society functioned and how the different classes interacted. In addition to chapters on nobles, peasants, city people, and the court, the book sheds new light on the Catholic church, the army, popular protest, the culture of violence, gendered relations, and sociability. This is a major new work that restores the ancien régime as a key epoch in its own right and not simply as the prelude to the coming Revolution. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

For courses on the French Revolution.

Written for today's undergraduates, this up-to-date survey of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era offers a concise alternative to the longer texts geared to advanced study in the field. This text introduces students to the major events that comprise the story of the French Revolution; to the different ways in which historians have interpreted these event; to the political, social, and cultural origins of the Revolution; and to recent scholarship in the field.

Customer Reviews (2)

Very concise yet complete
This work is brief yet provide an excellent overview of the French Revolution. An excellent starting point for anyone who wants to understand what happened in France during these turbulent years.

concise and clear
Popkin's 3rd edition has the virtue of brevity. He concisely lays out the main reasons for the French Revolution, and the events that then unfolded. The book includes the seminal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from 1789. One of the key documents of human history. American readers might note some possible influences of the American Declaration of Independence.

However, unlike the American Revolution and its aftermath, the story in this book is far bloodier. We see the Thermidor - the Terror, and how the French revolutionaries turned on each other, with losers bundled off to the guillotine. And with the ascent of Napoleon as military dictator. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume brings together an international team of experts who have synthesized and summarized the most recent research on French history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Using a topical approach to provide broad thematic coverage of the period from 1500 to 1660, each chapter focuses on a specific area of French history: politics and the state, the economy, society and culture, religion, gender and the family, and France's burgeoning overseas empire, which was constructed in this period. The result is the most up-to-date synthesis of this period, showing how recent scholarship has significantly revised the traditional narrative of French history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very readable
Though I generally prefer narrative history, and this book includes very little narrative beyond its chapter on the Wars of Religion, I found all the various authors' styles so attractive that I was sucked in to reading the thematic material in the rest of the book as well!Therefore I highly recommend the book.I've recently read a more detailed book on the Wars of Religion, but found the material here a very clear outline, particularly in conjunction with the several page chronology in the back of the book which expands on the text material, not only for the Wars of Religion, but for the entire period covered in the text.The brief section of the French experience overseas was especially well handled--I felt I learned the key points for understanding this time period in just a few pages.And as implied above, I also enjoyed reading and learned a lot from the many sections on economics, politics, and social trends.As well, most of the locales mentioned in the text are actually on maps included in the book, which can sometimes not be the case with history books.One of the best book I've read on Early Modern Europe. ... Read more

Product Description
The years between the Fronde and the French Revolution were the longest period of calm in French history. For much of it, France dominated the international scene in Europe and made efforts to achieve a comparable role in the wider world. Meanwhile, French cultural achievements set standards imitated everywhere. This volume, bringing together an international team of contributors, surveys the full variety of the period on its own terms rather than as a mere prelude to later revolutionary upheavals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Concise, readable, informative
This work is part of a series on France, and part of a series on major European nations. It would seem to be aimed at the undergraduate, yet avoids being pedantic. As an avid armchair historian, I found this work, like the others in the series, to be engaging, highly readable, with only a minimum of the too common judgemental hindsight one finds in current scholarship. While written by multiple authors, each have read the others sections, keeping ommissions and repetitions to a blissful minomum. The introduction and conclusion are written by the primary author, and a useful appendix consisting of maps, chronology, and an indicative "further reading" section. Because of the editorial oversight, it reads as a coherent work. Not strictly a narrative of political events, it provides a much broader feel of what it meant to be living in that period, which I find prefereable over the "and then this happenned" series of linear political and military events.

If you're starting from scratch, I'd recommend perusing a broader survey first, like the The Cambridge Illustrated History of France for overall context first. For those that prefer detailed narratives that read like a novel, pick up Nancy Mitford's The Sun King. Overall, this Goldilocks found this book to be just right!

great
i was afraid that it would come late, but it came just in time for my class.. and just as the seller told me it would be, brand new? ... Read more

Product Description
In this delightful blend of information, history, and opinion, Ina Caro gives us a four-dimensional tour of France. With inimitable insights and an informed sensibility cultivated from study and numerous visits to France, she takes us to where history unfolds--and then to a favorite spot for a picnic or five-course meal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Review of reviews
Arthur Schlesinger when writing about "The Road from the Past" wrote "Thoroughly delightful...the essential traveling companion."Peter Prescott, reviewer for "Newsweek Magazine" wrote of Ina Caro:"She demonstratesthat the best way to encounter a country is to examine its landscapes, architecture, and history in chronological order -- a premise so startling that it's a wonder no one has thought of it before." "The Denver Post" wrote: If I were on my way to Provence, Ina Caro's is the book I'd bring along."The American Way" wrote: "Ina Caro manages to make the idea of travel in France seem fresh and original, almost as though no one had ever thought to go there before." Butterfield tours recommended it. 17 of 23 people who bought the book gave it five stars.Why does Amazon lead on the net with the one person out of the 23 who hated it?

Outstanding Book for Tour of HistoricFrance
The Road from the Past:Traveling through History in France is an outstanding literary book and travel companion.My husband and I took the book with us on our tour of the Loire Valley and the Dordogne region.The documentation of the history and special sites were an immeasurable help to us on our three week journey.We love knowing everything about places when we are visiting.The book gave us the history and much more.We gave this book also as a gift to our friends who also enjoy driving through France.

Interesting in Partbut....
The concept of the book is unique but alas, for most of us impractical: touring France from south to north following the historical development of the French nation-state. The book begins in Provence with the Romans and ends in the Ile-de-France with Louis XIV. So, for example, the tour of Provence does not include Avignon because it's historical importance is medieval not Roman. Not to mention the part it played in the development of impressionism.

I found the parts about the Albigensian Crusade and the Hundred Years War of great interest. However, the author apparently has a fetish for the decadent aristocracy because about a third of the book is dedicated to the various Henry's and Louis, kings and aristocrats,their assorted concubines and [...] and the chateaus they built. I suppose that some will find it interesting. I thought it was quite boring.

History and travel all in one
Ina Caro's innovative approach to understanding regions of France and periods of French history in tandem brings both to life.

The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France
This book is tremendously fascinating, covering different time periods of France's history. It is a tour guide that makes the past come alive from Roman times to the reign of the last Sun King. I recommend it to anybody that is interested in history and certainly to young people who are just becoming acquainted with history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

I continue to be impressed
This is the tenth volume of Durant's Story of Civilization and his love for the great men and women of history shines through.My appreciation of history, philosophy and literature stems from reading these volumes.My reading list is heavily influenced by what is mentioned in this book.

As is his custom, Durant focuses on those events and people in history that have influenced our civilization.This volume focuses on France, England, and Germany from 1756 to 1789 (the beginning of the French Revolution).He also touches on the rest of Europe from 1715 to 1789.As can be seen from the title, Rousseau is the focus, contrasted with Voltaire in his previous volume.

This was the time of Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant, Haydn, Bach, Mozart, Casanova, Catherine the Great, Frederick, Goethe, Schiller, Boswell, Gibbon, Walpole, Samuel Johnson, and many other great figures in philosophy, music, literature, and politics.Durant did an excellent job showing how those figures impacted their time and still have an impact in our time.

It is interesting to note that this was intended be the final volume of this work, but since Durant lived much longer that he expected, he and his wife did one more volume on the time of Napoleon.I am just starting that final volume.

I highly recommend this book, and it should work well read alone, or as part of this series.This is great literature and teaches great lessons of history that I wish our current leadership would read.

collection
bought it to complete a set; i wish i would have paid attention to publication date cause now i have a mismatched set of different color covers.

If you like any of these books, go for the whole set
People "of a certain age" will remember when a certain book-each-monthclub offered a bonus to new members:LP's (yes, that long ago) of Beethoven's nine symphonies, a two-volume compact Oxford English Dictionary with magnifying lens, or the eleven-volume HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION by Will and Ariel Durant.I went for the OED, but fortunately, years later I glommed onto the Durants' wonderful set of histories, which chronologically track Asia and the Greco-Roman world up to the time of Napoleon using multiple but well-coordinated discussions of cultural, historical and intellectual histories.

How to describe?If a high-school course on Western Civ is an outline, and a college course is a survey, then these books are a personal guided tour down the groves of history by a very patient, erudite teacher (Will) and his wife/research assistant (and eventually co-author), Ariel.While it is the next-to-last volume of the series sequentially, ROUSSEAU AND REVOLUTION is a great start if you are just kicking tires:few people other than the Durants could document and explain so well the mixture of intellectual trends, cultural shifts and political upheaval that defines that turbulent era. It is "first among equals" and won several prizes.Not for nothing did the Durants spend 30 years traveling the globe for research material for the series and nearly another 40 to write it down and hone it for a general audience. (Sadly, death kept them from writing more volumes to bring the histories up to modern times.)

Will Durant was, philosophically, a culturally conservative man but not a reprehensible man.The very first volume of the full 11-volume set is OUR ORIENTAL HERITAGE, and other than the slightly quaint use of "oriental" to mean what we'd today style "Asian," his and Ariel's obvious appreciation and respect show through -- and tie us to later Europe. And while he wasn't a fan of "the proletariat," there are few histories that are so considerate of the reader and lack both cant and obscurity.Sometimes hard to find in these deconstructed times!

I don't expect those who read this "rave" will want to go out and invest in the full set, but start with any volume -- particularly ROUSSEAU AND REVOLUTION -- and if you enjoy the approach and the multiple takes on history, you'll probably want more.Not to scare you but I don't believe bomc is printing these any more; good used or new copies will make for great knowledge and good keepsakes too.I also understand that of late a "collectors" type book club offers the entire set all together.But unless you like the smell of slurried leather covers and don't mind paying a much steeper price, probably better to go with good used volumes through Amazon.

Lush, remarkable Pulitzer prize-winning volume...
...continues the excellence of the series. Originally intended as the final book of the series, "The Story of Civilization", in ended up being the penultimate volume.

The Durants lucidly and eloquently summarize the philosophy, life and influence that Rousseau had on the 18th century and, indeed, continues to have to this very day. Rousseau may be regarded as the creator of the Left-wing sensibility. This may seem anachronistic and, in a sense, it is. Rousseau died before the French Revolution, which created the modern political division of Right and Left. Nevertheless, it is accurate to see him as the Fountainhead for relativism, communism, and the worship of feeling as opposed to reason (debased and emptied of all intellectual content this is now called building "self-esteem" by the modern leftist).

Rousseau created most of the modern ills of political fanaticism and airy, absurd idealism as the Durants so ably note.

The rest of the period is not neglected and vivid portraits are made of Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, the Elder Pitt, Diderot, D'Holbach, Samuel Johnson and many, many others help this book to shine.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize--which should have gone to the entire series as opposed to just this volume--this book gives the reader a complete (if necessarily synopsized) account of the End and Failure of the Enlightenment and how what Rousseau and Voltaire intended in their attacks on the social structure (Rousseau) and religion (Voltaire) lead to disastrous consequences in the French Revolution.

The writing sparkles with vivid wit, pith and lucid beauty. It is a book to be read for a lifetime and bequeathed to children. In an age where smarmy, intellectually empty, political fanaticism is attempting to erase the past in favor of the PC fantasies of the moment, the Durants offer a vivid account of the Truth. European civilization is presented here in all its glory and with all its warts. Slavery, religious fanaticism, exploitation and the horrors of the penal system and warfare are all presented here, in their proper place and in context. The modern academic community has attempted to destroy the ideal of context and balance. As long as these books are around, REAL history and historiography are available to anyone who simply opens a copy and reads it.

Was this review helpful to you?

The Tenth Volume in The Story of Civilization!
In this, the tenth volume in the critically acclaimed series "The Story of Civilization," Dr. will & Ariel Durant have compiled a masterful dramatic exploration of the European climate and the events which paved the way for the French Revolution.

The reader will be exposed to a vivid recount of the acts of: Rousseau, who confessed his most embarassing sexual and emotional episodes.England and the rise of her overseas empire.Catherine The Great of Russia.Frederick The Great of Prussia.The German Enlightenment.Marie Antoinette.France's impotent and frustrated King Louis XVI.And much, much more including plates and maps.

Written to stand alone or within the series, the Durants have composed an unparalleled historical prose in smooth flowing narrative that is easy to read and understand by both professional and layperson alike. In short, this book is for everyone.I rate it as five stars.Bravo! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a vivid portrait of the French historical profession in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, concluding just before the emergence of the famous Annales school of historians. It places the profession in its social, academic, and political context and shows that historians of the period have been unfairly maligned as amateurish and primitive in comparison to their more celebrated successors.

Pim den Boer begins by sketching the contours of French historiography in the nineteenth century, examining the quantity of historical writing, its subject matter, and who wrote it. He traces the growing influence of professional historians. He shows the increasing involvement of the national government in historical studies, paying special attention to the impact of political factions, ranging from ultraroyalists to radical republicans. He explores how historical research and teaching changed at schools and universities. And he shows how nineteenth-century historians' keen understanding of the past and of historical methodology laid the foundations for historiography in the twentieth century. archives, including official documents, confidential reports, and personal letters. Den Boer makes use of statistical, biographical, and methodological analysis and demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of both minor historians and leading scholars, including Charles Seignobos and Charles-Victor Langlois. ... Read more

Product Description
"On one level, Peter Moogk's latest book, La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada--A Cultural History, is a candid exploration ofthe troubled historical relationship that exists between the inhabitants of French- and English-speaking Canada. At the same time, it is a long-overdue study ofthe colonial social institutions, values, and experiences that shaped modern French Canada. Moogk draws on a rich body of evidence--literature; statistical studies; government, legal, and private documents in France, Britain, and North America--and traces the roots of the Anglo-French cultural struggle to the seventeenth century. In so doing, he discovered a New France vastly different from the one portrayed in popular mythology. French relations with Native Peoples, for instance, were strained. The colony of New France was really no single entity, but rather a chain of loosely aligned outposts stretching from Newfoundland in the east to the Illinois Country in the west.

Moogk also found that many early immigrants to New France were reluctant exiles from their homeland and that a high percentage returned to Europe. Those who stayed, the Acadians and Canadians, were politically conservative and retained Old Regime values: feudal social hierarchies remained strong; one's individualism tended to be familial, not personal; Roman Catholicism molded attitudes and was as important as language in defining Acadian and Canadian identities. It was, Moogk concludes, the pre-French Revolution Bourbon monarchy and its institutions that shaped modern French Canada, in particular the Province of Quebec, and set its people apart from the rest of the nation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Franco-Americans may not identify withNouvelle France
Non-Traditional View of Francos: An Author Speaks

By Juliana L'Heureux

A recent telephone interview with author Peter N. Moogk, 60, a Canadian professor currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia, brought out a surprisingly non-traditional point of view on Franco-American culture.

So much of Franco-American culture is embellished in nostalgia about the past, but Moogk cuts through the heroic veneer presented by some earlier writers like Francis Parkman.

Moogk's most recent book was published in the United States in 2001, titled "La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada- A Cultural History". It's an ambitious historical effort.

To his credit, Moogk provides extensive research covering the entire 400 year scope of the French experience in North America, not just a little slice of it.In a nutshell, Moogk avoids all prevailing points of view about French-Canadian culture. There's no embellishments or cultural nostalgia.

Instead, Moogk's research drives home the difficult circumstances of French history in North America.

Moogk teaches early French North American history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.He's a citizen of both England and Canada.He's not a French-Canadian but he attended McGill University in Montreal for a brief time and he speaks French.

One reason he wrote La Nouvelle France was because he wasn't happy with what his students were learning about French-Canada.Popular Canadian histories assume that New France has no influence upon the present.The French Regime is presented as colorful but not serious. It's a sequential era of heroic missionaries, valiant warriors, explorers and hardy fur traders.

But the French-Canadian culture is more complex and impressive than what's currently portrayed, he says.

Not surprising, La Nouvelle France generated some criticism from French-Canadian history reviewers, he says.

"Reviewers are critical of my analysis of the French separatist movement in the last chapter," he says.In fact, reviewers prefer talking about the last chapter and thereby tend to dismiss the exhaustive historic research throughout the rest of the text, he says.

From a Franco-American point of view, the second chapter is most interesting. Moogk describes the special relationship during the colonial period between the French and Aboriginal people (i.e., Native Americans).In Canada, the Native Americans are now called "First Nations".

In French, the original common word for First Nations was les Sauvages, meaning "Wild People of the Forests".

"The word `Sauvages' was an old interpretation and wasn't a hostile word during the 17th and 18th centuries," says Moogk.

"I observed a healthy relationship between the French colonists and the Aboriginal peoples," says Moogk."The nature of the relationship couldn't be ignored," he says. Moreover, the special relationship was learned fromEuropean attitudes towards primitive people.Colonial French settlers accepted Aboriginal people, says Moogk, because the European aristocracy readers of Greek, and Roman classics and the Holy Bible believed in a lost world of innocence, like the Biblical Eden.

Colonial era Europeans believed les Sauvages lived a romanticized life in a golden and mythical world free to do as they pleased. They were supposedly relieved from the necessity of labor because they were surrounded by abundant food.

To 17th century Europeans, the Amerindians confirmed the classic beliefs that primitive people lost their innocence when they were corrupted by luxury and artificiality.

"I was struck by the number of stories about French children who were raised by the native people.It's nearly impossible to track, but the sprinkling of French children in the native culture is interesting", he says.

On a positive note, Moogk likes the compassionate nature of the French culture and the strong family ties.

La Nouvelle France is certainly a different perspective on the culture, sure to stir debate, as well it should. Juliana@MaineWriter.com ... Read more

Product Description
The remarkable untold story of France’s courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II.

"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine."
–Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d’Argent

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine.Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now.This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.Amazon.com Review
Liberty, equality, and fraternity are all well and good, a championof French culture once remarked. But, he continued, what made France trulysuperior to its neighbors was the French passion for wine, which"contributed to the French race by giving it wit, gaiety, and good taste,qualities which set it profoundly apart from people who drink a lot ofbeer."

The commentator may have had a point; after all, write Don and PetieKladstrup, it was a well-known fact that Adolf Hitler did not like wine.Still, their leader's teetotalism notwithstanding, the Germans showed nodistaste for French wine when they invaded France in 1940. Indeed, amongthe first acts of the occupying army was to seize great stores of wine,sending tens of thousands of barrels to the Third Reich and ordering theconversion of thousands of hectares of vineyards into war production.

Some French vintners, the Kladstrups write in this enjoyable study, wentalong with orders. Many others, however, including the heads ofdistinguished houses like Moët et Chandon, engaged in daring and dangerousacts of resistance wherever they could. Some lied about their yields;others built false walls to hide precious vintages; and still othersconcocted elaborate ruses, such as sprinkling carpet dust into inferiorgrades of new wine to give it a musty, distinguished flavor. Not everyGerman was fooled, and some partisans of the grape died for their troubles.But some Germans, at considerable risk to themselves, also looked the otherway. The Kladstrups fill their pages with memories of the wine war fromboth sides of the struggle, stories sometimes somber, sometimes amusing,that commemorate those "whose love of the grape and devotion to a way oflife helped them survive and triumph over one of the darkest and mostdifficult chapters in French history." --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (65)

"Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure"
I love this book. Being a history lover, I had wondered happened to the vineyards in France during WWII and this answered all my questions. It also taught me more about the Resistance in France. It is a good 3 day read.

Great read
This was a great snapshot of a period in French history (WWII and Nazi occupation) as told through the lens of the wine industry.

Excellent book
This is an excellent book. Any WW II fan will enjoy this account of occupied France.

A Great Read
I loved this book. It was a great read. If you enjoy wine and are also fond of history, the two are married successfully in this fine book. The book is well-written, tells a great story, and is filled with memorable anecdotes about French interaction with the Germans. It was interesting to learn, for instance, about how the French forces held up the allied advance in the Borgogne region because even regular French soldiers knew which ones were the Grand Cru Pinot Noir vineyards and simply could not bring themselves to risk destroying them for something as transitory as a war. To the French those vineyards are as priceless as is Mount Rushmore to Americans. The American soldiers, of course, had no clue what the French were talking about, but that is part of the charm of the story: we are who we are, as are the French and the Germans respectively. One learns much from this book, including how the French dealt with the German policy toward the Jewish-owned estates (Rothschild, for instance)and the various ways the French tricked the Germans (including switching Bordeaux labels so that the Bosch, their derogatory term for the Germans, thought they were drinking Premiers Cru, when it was actually plonk. The latter was a risky business, as quite a few Germans knew wine well, including Goering). The book should also be lauded for not sidestepping the delicate fact that the French have a complicated history here that includes both collaboration and resistance. It is not surprising that this story was written by an outsider (not by a French person) and only after enough time had lapsed (many of the people involved are dead). Just as Americans find it difficult to take on soberly the delicate topic of the history of American racism and its effects today, so the French would rather not think about their utter defeat at the hands of the Germans in 1940 and their subsequent collaboration from 1940-44 in their efforts to survive.

Wine and War
Interesting history of what happened to the French wine industry during the Nazi occupation of France.The less well known part of WW II is its effect on one of France's most important and, at the time, unique industries.

"Wine and War" covers the Nazi administration of the various wine districts through appointments to well-placed German wine merchants, how the locals avoided the wide-scale Nazi plundering of priceless wine stocks ordered by Hermann Goering and how they met quotas ordered by Berlin for continuing shipments of wine from the most famous estates in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne.

The authors provide the reader with a good chronology and narrative thread for a book largely based upon anecdotes. The book starts with the French peoples' assumption that their army was capable of deterring a German invasion through to the winemakers keeping one step ahead of the Nazis as France was quickly occupied and set up with an administration ordered to steal everything in sight.Also covered is the Vichy government and its beginning with the good will of the people and its gradual disintegration, the role of the French resistance in the wine districts and the war's effects on the great estates.

A quick and enjoyable read about an aspect of the war hugely important to France and winedrinkers everywhere that is generally not well known. ... Read more

Product Description
For many people, Paris is the epitome of the perfect city-beautiful, romantic, and imbued with vitality and culture. It is a wonderful place to visit and to live in.

Packed with fact, anecdote, and insight, A Traveller's History of Paris offers a complete history of Paris and the people who have shaped its destiny, from its earliest settlement as the Roman village ofLutetia Parisiorum with a few hundred inhabitants, to 20 centuries later when Paris is a city of well over two million-nearly one-fifth of the population of France.

This handy paperback is fully indexed and includes a Chronology of Major Events, as well as sections on Notre-Dame and historic churches, Modernism, parks, bridges, cemeteries, museums and galleries, the Metro, and the environs. Illustrated with line drawings and historical maps, this is an invaluable book for all visitors to read and enjoy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Specialized read
My husband likes travel books and history, and this combines them.I bought it for him as a gift; he really liked it.

semi-interesting; sloppy writing
like a previous posting, i was gratified by some of the details included by the author.however, i generally found the writing to be sloppy, and dry.the overall feel of the book is also uneven-- for example, the princess diana section towards the end seems it fit to tell us the origin of the word "paparazzi", yet there is very little about the continuing mayoral politics, the rise of anti-immigrant feeling in paris, etc.

Poorly organized and uneven
The first 90% of the book is an unevenly written 2000 year chronology of the city. The chapters proceed from pre-Roman to modern times. This makes it very difficult to find information from different eras on specific landmarks. The style is also very dry. My point is that the information isn't presented in a way that a traveller would want to access it--'I'm in Place de la Concorde--what's happened here over the centuries?' Other books I've read like this will take you through suggested walks in different neighborhoods talking about their history e.g. 'Turn left down this street and you're looking at Napolean's house etc...' The book also ignores or barely mentions the historical basis for many popular characters of Paris historical fiction. The musketeers get half a sentance and Victor Hugo's stories don't fare much better. The last 10% attempts to give some more detailed information about Notre Dame and a couple other landmarks but it's too little, too late. I did learn a lot of interesting material about the city. But I would recommend spending your time with a Parisian's memoir or work of fiction based in Paris. I think you would get much more enjoyment for your investment.

A Historical Glimpse into Paris
I first encountered this book in a college bookstore among the texts. It was required reading for a curriculum-based trip to France. I was surprised to find that though nestled among texts, this book was a refreshingly light read with insightful tidbits into Paris' grand history. Punctuated with simple sketches for illustrations, the book offers a great deal of behind-the-scenes information which enriches any trip to Paris let along anyone with a crush on the City of Light. I frequently include the book in my packing for overseas trips because it makes fun reading among travel companions as we tour the city or to discuss over a cup of café. The history in this book is simplified enough to be a pleasant read (not overwhelming or at all like stereo instructions), but in-depth enough to make you feel like an expert. It really enriches any visit to Paris to understand the city's history and this book is a great way to get an overview of what Paris has gone through over the ages.

Read this book before you go
Like most people, I didn't pay a lot of attention in world history class.If you ever slept through a lecture on the French Revolution, you should read this book.It looks dry, but is actually very witty; the author has afine sense of irony.You can't help but snicker at the author's detail ofthe revolutionaries storming the Bastille, only to find just 6 peoplelocked up... or finding out how Robespierre received a substantial award incollege for excellent academic performance.A good overview of Parisianhistory from 53 BC to the present.The book also includes a section on thehistory of major monuments and museums, such as Notre Dame de Paris and theEiffel Tower. ... Read more

Product Description
The secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great,the near-great, and the forgotten—by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France.This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction, of the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten.

A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its course. Later that night Napoleon Bonaparte writes a meticulous account of his first sexual encounter. A well-dressed woman, fleeing the Louvre, takes a wrong turn and loses her way in the nameless streets of the Left Bank. For want of a map—there were no reliable ones at the time—Marie-Antoinette will go to the guillotine.

Baudelaire, the photographer Marville, Baron Haussmann, the real-life Mimi of La Bohème, Proust, Adolf Hitler touring the occupied capital in the company of his generals, Charles de Gaulle (who is suspected of having faked an assassination attempt in Notre Dame)—these and many more are Robb’s cast of characters, and the settings range from the quarries and catacombs beneath the streets to the grand monuments to the appalling suburbs ringing the city today. The result is a resonant, intimate history with the power of a great novel. 16 pages of illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

French History
I am reading this slowly - it is quite a different view the author is giving us of the history of Paris.I am enjoying it.

a superb introduction to Paris
Graham Robb is a master of historical research and an even finer spinner of tales.The result is an enthralling experience of Paris which is borne out be an actual visit.

Contextual reading
If visiting Paris - or after visiting, this book helps put a lot of the sights in context. Written well in a reader friendly style- would recommend to anyone who prefers a more than a superficial experience of Paris. Not a travel guide but fascinating to relive events in the various districts of Paris- some relatively recent.
Robb is an excellent writer and his other book is also recommended- outlining the history of Frenchlanguage, bureaucracy and mapping over all geographic areas of France.

Good but also frustrating
If you have a passion for Paris, or France in general the Parisians is likely worth the read.There is much to enjoy about Robb's book.Bits about the construction of the catacombs were fascinating, Marie Antoinette getting lost for half a night just feet outside the Royal Palace added to the legend of her general cluelessness, the story of Emile Zola's wife was heartbreaking, and there's a bit about Alchemy's influence on chemistry, physics and one particular Alchemist's knowledge of the nuclear energy well before it was harnessed for the atom bomb.

But there were many times I found myself frustrated with the book.Robb clearly knows his Parisian history but chooses to play coy often not telling us who the chapters are about until the last few paragraphs.Moreover he writes as if the reader should know many of facts and dates of Parisian history.My Parisian history is rather weak (why I was interested in the book) so I muddled through as best I could.In one chapter the two unnamed major players of the story were both men and I found myself realizing that the "he" Robb had started to tell me about, was no longer the "he" I was now reading about--you see the difficulty?It's not like this is Faulker or Joyce we're tackling here.I don't feel it's too much to ask to feel secure in repeating a fact or two of history after I'm finished reading some historical non-fiction.

Other nit-picking:

*Robb makes much of the fact that there wasn't a decent map of Paris up until a certain point but couldn't a *readable* one have been included in the book for reference? (There is a quaint little map included at the beginning of the book--it just wasn't terribly helpful)

*There is an entire section talking about Marville's photographs of the city which sounded lovely but the photos reproduced in the book were so small as to make all the details Robb discusses nearly impossible to see.

I admit to not finishing the last 100 or so pages of this book.With two other books on my shelf and other Amazon reviewers claiming things got less cogent as the book went into it's final pages I felt like I'd done what I could with The Parisians.

On the other hand, the Parisians has piqued my curiosity about reading some classic French literature and looking more into the lives of some of the character in this book.I'd say all and all I've come out better for having spent time with it.

Destined to be a classic
This is a book that you should read after your first trip to Paris, once you have the lay of the land, and then reread right before your next trip.Paris is a palimpsest here, just waiting for the author to uncover for us the rich details at each layer.You will go back to Paris searching for the alchemical reliefs on the front of Notre Dame, the home of Nicholas Flamel in the Marais, the spot in the Palais Royal where Napoleon spent his first debauched night in Paris, the Left Bank street that disappeared, the corner where Marie-Antoinette made the wrong turn and set in motion the events that would lead to her death, and many more ... A page-turner, and beautifully written. ... Read more

Product Description
LIVING ADVENTURES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY Volume 1 -

1- PAUL REVERE – "The Midnight Ride for Freedom"The dramatized story of how Paul Revere’s historic ride sparked the American Revolution for freedom from King George of England.

2- VALLEY FORGE – "One Winter’s Day at Valley Forge"The dramatized story of how two shivering young soldiers kept America’s hopes alive during the bitter cold winter at Valley Forge.

3- MOLLY PITCHER – " The Lady with the Cannon"The dramatized story of how a teenage girl in pigtails, carrying only a pitcher, was the true winner in America’s vital victory in the Battle of Monmouth.

4- NATHAN HALE – "The Spy who Died a Hero"The dramatized story of how a young American officer sacrificed his life to safeguard George Washington’s fight for freedom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Stories
My 10 year old loves this CD. Good, well told, short stories for bed time and a great history lessons. He knows more about American History now than most adults.

Living Adventures from American History, Album #1
Living Adventures from American History is a Parents' Choice Recommended product. This audio book runs approximately one hour and contains four tales for children: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride for Freedom, Two Soldiers in One Winter's Day at Valley Forge, Molly Pitcher in The Lady with the Cannon, and Nathan Hale in The Spy who Died a Hero. Each of these stories depicts a real historical event in American history.

Each of these four stories is active and entertaining with a strong inspirational nationalist tone. Frances Kelly, the narrator, makes the stories come alive by changing her voice with the various characters and acting out each part of the action. This adds to the entertainment and makes the stories easy to follow. ... Read more

Product Description
"Determinedly and liberatingly inclusive...satisfying and beautifully produced."—Publishers WeeklyThis enlarged vision of American art draws together the many strands of North America's history and visual culture. A tradition once assumed to be mainly European and oriented toward painting and sculpture has been enriched by the inclusion of other media such as ceramics and needlework, as well as the work of previously marginalized groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.

For the second edition, the author has updated and expanded the text, and has significantly increased the coverage of architecture.
685 illustrations, 348 in color ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book on American Art
This book is extremely well written, well rounded, and well researched.A great book for a art history student or someone who is just curious because it examines the subject matter from several points of view - not just the standard white male version of history.Folks that are normally breezed by in other texts are discussed here in length - finally!I loved reading this book and gaining insights into the history of what makes American Art unique in it's vision. I am a college art teacher and will be recommending this book for my next semester. Thank you to Frances Pohl!

Superb!
Wow!Another incredible book published by Thames and Hudson!I love their art compendiums.Here, the author gives us a Canadian viewpoint on US history that is erudite and fascinating.Huge detailed book yet quite refreshing to read.I'm using it in a History of American Art from a Multicultural Perspective class. Lots of history and beautifully detailed artworks, including timelines.The printing is superb (Singapore).I highly recommend it!Great reading and a wonderful addition to your home library.

Good overview
This is a great book for a survey course in American art or for someone who wants to get into American art and just wants a general overview. The text is written in a very approachable manner, and the images that are included are of excellent quality and represent some good instances of characteristically American works. I used this book for an art history course in American art that was of a very limited time period, but the book is essentially written to cover everything in American art fairly broadly, from colonial times to the late twentieth century. A good read, and a good deal. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the major painters and sculptors of the period during the last years of France's "ancien regime" - a period that started with Watteau and the "fete galante" and closed with the revolutionary history paintings of David. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1890.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
James Donovan takes a comprehensive approach to the history of the jury in modern France by investigating the legal, political, sociocultural, and intellectual aspects of jury trial from the Revolution through the twentieth century. He demonstrates that these juries, through their decisions, helped shape reform of the nation's criminal justice system.&9;
&9;
From their introduction in 1791 as an expression of the sovereignty of the people through the early 1900s, argues Donovan, juries often acted against the wishes of the political and judicial authorities, despite repeated governmental attempts to manipulate their composition. High acquittal rates for both political and nonpolitical crimes were in part due to juror resistance to the harsh and rigid punishments imposed by the Napoleonic Penal Code, Donovan explains.
&9;
&9;
&9;
... Read more

Product Description
The French Revolution is a defining moment in world history, and usually it has been first approached by English-speaking readers through the picture painted of it by Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France is a classic work in a range of fields from history through political science to literature, and securely holds its place among the canon of "great books." Yet its meaning is still contested and often misunderstood, equally by those who wish to admire or to denigrate Burke for his present-day relevance. This edition aims to locate Burke once again in his contemporary political and intellectual setting. Alone among recent versions, it reprints the text of the first edition of the Reflections, and shows how Burke amended it as his knowledge of the Revolution deepened. It is certain to become the standard edition for scholars and students alike.

The editor's Introduction is much more extensive than that of any previous edition. It situates the Reflections in Burke's life and the development of his ideas, the history of English political thought, the debate about the French Revolution, and the debate the book itself inspired. But the Introduction is more than a compendium of information; it is a thoughtful, coherent interpretation of Burke and his book. The editor's notes are also fuller than those of any previous edition, glossing many literary and biblical allusions missed by previous editors. He also supplies an extended note on the text, a biographical guide, and a bibliography, helpfully presented in discursive form. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Burke's evils of the French Revolution
This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution.In Burke's book Reflections on the Revolution in France, he penned a diatribe against the evils of the French Revolution,believing that there was a pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians joined by money-jobbers whose aim was to topple not only the old regime in France, but to export their "plague" throughout Europe.Thus, Burke astutely understood and abhorred the influence that Radical Enlightenment ideas had on the French Revolution.One instantly detects, in Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a conservative philosophy by which he not only understood his own society, but the entire human civilization.Much of his work was an appeal to a politically conservative notion of a "created order" of the world, which from this reading seemed to be universal to all European nations.This reader sensed that Burke's Reflections were written as a warning to the rest of Europe not to follow the model of change embodied in the French Revolution, and to adopt the steady reforms that took place in England.

Burke found no social redeeming value in the French Revolution and when he wrote Reflections, the worst of the "reign of terror" had yet to come.In fact, if one used Georges Lefebvre's notion of "four acts" to the Revolution, Burke poured out all his criticism against the first two acts, the aristocratic and bourgeois revolts.This reader found Burke's long sections on British history used to buttress his case; that change should have come to France within a more staid social order as either ignorant of the complex socio-economic and political factors that led up to the Revolution, or as a naïve belief that that the French people were so culturally close to the English that they should both react in similar fashion to socio-political upheaval.Burke delivered a literary "tongue lashing" to the French for how easily they turned their backs on their socio-political traditions."You had all these advantages in your ancient states; but you chose to act as if you had never been moulded into civil society, and had everything to begin anew.You began ill, because you began by despising everything that belonged to you" (31).This reader found Burke's argument on this point a little disingenuous.He lectured how Britain's "Glorious Revolution" in 1688 should have been the model for reform.However, he barely mentioned the bloody English Civil War that Cromwell staged, including the regicide of Charles I.In addition, one's impression of Burke's information is that he had received a very narrow view of the history leading up to the Revolution and its opening days, which seemed confined to correspondence from a small circle of friends.Burke had high praise for the First and Second Estates.His opinion of the nobles he knew was that they were, "...for the greater part composed of men of high spirit, and of a delicate sense of honour....They were tolerably well bred; very officious, humane, and hospitable" (115-116).Not the impression one is left with after viewing the movie Dangerous Liaisons!In describing his personal contacts with the French clergy, he noted that, "I received a perfectly good account of their morals, and of their attention to their duties" (123).

Burke essentially observed a "cabal" that planned the opening of the Revolution to include a pronouncement of aristocratic intentions to abolish feudalism, the National Assembly's adoption of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," and the confiscation of Church property.Burke blamed two evils for the old regimes' demise.First, he blamed the philosophes whose atheistic literature he believed provided the influential ideas necessary to set the Revolution in motion."The literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion" (94)."Writers, especially when they act in a body, and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind" (95).Second, he blamed the doubling of the Third Estate's representation in the National Assembly who were led by an overabundance of undistinguished lawyers and whose ambitions were to grab the reins of power.Burke described these men as "the inferior, unlearned, mechanical, merely instrumental members of the profession" (36).Burke also ascribed to this cabal; the desire to reorder society through the confiscation of property, which he decried in his Reflections."I see the confiscators begin with bishops, and chapters, and monasteries; but I do not see them end their" (128).Thus, Burke found that the pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians were too enamored of the "new religion" of enlightenment science and had no respect for tradition or the wisdom of religion."They conceive very systematically, that all things which give perpetuity are mischievous" (75).
Alexis de Tocqueville noted how Burke misjudged the Revolution."At first he thought it meant that France would be weakened and virtually destroyed" (94).Burke also feared that this "irrational" revolution would infest his own countrymen similar to a plaque."If it be a plague, it is such a plague that the precautions of the most severe quarantine ought to be established against it." (76).

Burke was no stranger to enlightened ideas.After all, he had been a supporter of American and Irish liberty.Burke was a Conservative Enlightenment figure, defending "reason" with tradition and religion.However, what Burke, was condemning in its earliest form is what we now recognize as ideology.And what he understood with great foresight is the power of modern intellectuals, acting as a literary clerisy, to produce it.Thus, Burke found that the pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians were too enamored of the "new religion" of enlightenment science and had no respect for tradition or the wisdom of religion."They conceive very systematically, that all things which give perpetuity are mischievous" (75).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.

Burke's evils of the French Revolution
This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution.In Burke's book Reflections on the Revolution in France, he penned a diatribe against the evils of the French Revolution,believing that there was a pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians joined by money-jobbers whose aim was to topple not only the old regime in France, but to export their "plague" throughout Europe.Thus, Burke astutely understood and abhorred the influence that Radical Enlightenment ideas had on the French Revolution.One instantly detects, in Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a conservative philosophy by which he not only understood his own society, but the entire human civilization.Much of his work was an appeal to a politically conservative notion of a "created order" of the world, which from this reading seemed to be universal to all European nations.This reader sensed that Burke's Reflections were written as a warning to the rest of Europe not to follow the model of change embodied in the French Revolution, and to adopt the steady reforms that took place in England.

Burke found no social redeeming value in the French Revolution and when he wrote Reflections, the worst of the "reign of terror" had yet to come.In fact, if one used Georges Lefebvre's notion of "four acts" to the Revolution, Burke poured out all his criticism against the first two acts, the aristocratic and bourgeois revolts.This reader found Burke's long sections on British history used to buttress his case; that change should have come to France within a more staid social order as either ignorant of the complex socio-economic and political factors that led up to the Revolution, or as a naïve belief that that the French people were so culturally close to the English that they should both react in similar fashion to socio-political upheaval.Burke delivered a literary "tongue lashing" to the French for how easily they turned their backs on their socio-political traditions."You had all these advantages in your ancient states; but you chose to act as if you had never been moulded into civil society, and had everything to begin anew.You began ill, because you began by despising everything that belonged to you" (31).This reader found Burke's argument on this point a little disingenuous.He lectured how Britain's "Glorious Revolution" in 1688 should have been the model for reform.However, he barely mentioned the bloody English Civil War that Cromwell staged, including the regicide of Charles I.In addition, one's impression of Burke's information is that he had received a very narrow view of the history leading up to the Revolution and its opening days, which seemed confined to correspondence from a small circle of friends.Burke had high praise for the First and Second Estates.His opinion of the nobles he knew was that they were, "...for the greater part composed of men of high spirit, and of a delicate sense of honour....They were tolerably well bred; very officious, humane, and hospitable" (115-116).Not the impression one is left with after viewing the movie Dangerous Liaisons!In describing his personal contacts with the French clergy, he noted that, "I received a perfectly good account of their morals, and of their attention to their duties" (123).

Burke essentially observed a "cabal" that planned the opening of the Revolution to include a pronouncement of aristocratic intentions to abolish feudalism, the National Assembly's adoption of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," and the confiscation of Church property.Burke blamed two evils for the old regimes' demise.First, he blamed the philosophes whose atheistic literature he believed provided the influential ideas necessary to set the Revolution in motion."The literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion" (94)."Writers, especially when they act in a body, and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind" (95).Second, he blamed the doubling of the Third Estate's representation in the National Assembly who were led by an overabundance of undistinguished lawyers and whose ambitions were to grab the reins of power.Burke described these men as "the inferior, unlearned, mechanical, merely instrumental members of the profession" (36).Burke also ascribed to this cabal; the desire to reorder society through the confiscation of property, which he decried in his Reflections."I see the confiscators begin with bishops, and chapters, and monasteries; but I do not see them end their" (128).Thus, Burke found that the pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians were too enamored of the "new religion" of enlightenment science and had no respect for tradition or the wisdom of religion."They conceive very systematically, that all things which give perpetuity are mischievous" (75).
Alexis de Tocqueville noted how Burke misjudged the Revolution."At first he thought it meant that France would be weakened and virtually destroyed" (94).Burke also feared that this "irrational" revolution would infest his own countrymen similar to a plaque."If it be a plague, it is such a plague that the precautions of the most severe quarantine ought to be established against it." (76).

Burke was no stranger to enlightened ideas.After all, he had been a supporter of American and Irish liberty.Burke was a Conservative Enlightenment figure, defending "reason" with tradition and religion.However, what Burke, was condemning in its earliest form is what we now recognize as ideology.And what he understood with great foresight is the power of modern intellectuals, acting as a literary clerisy, to produce it.Thus, Burke found that the pernicious cabal of philosophes and politicians were too enamored of the "new religion" of enlightenment science and had no respect for tradition or the wisdom of religion."They conceive very systematically, that all things which give perpetuity are mischievous" (75).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.

Could have been written by a Thermidorian pamphleteer
Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" is analysis lacking in accuracy and originality by an enemy of democracy which should not be read without careful consideration of the author's motives and a thorough fore-knowledge of the French Revolution. Do yourself a favor and read some worthwhile reflections.

The Revised Oxford Edition It Ain't
Don't buy this book!The Revised Oxford Edition of this classic book has it all:Insightful introduction, properly translated quotations, fine notes.

Text is Great, Intro by L.G.Mitchell is better
Can't improve on the text of REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.He was the dominant political thinker of the last quarter of the 18th century in ENgland.His reputation depends less on his role as a practising politician than on his ability to set contemporary problems within a wider context of political theory.The introduction by L.G. Mitchell argues this point congently. Mitchell's intro appears in the Oxford University Press edition. It's cheaper, too. ... Read more