Product Description

Combining superb illustration with authoritative text, this is a major political and social history of France from earliest times to the eve of the new millennium. Colin Jones offers not only an expert’s account of political, social and cultural developments, but also a fresh and full interpretation of French history. The Cambridge Illustrated History of France places an innovatory emphasis on the importance of issues of regionalism, class, gender and race in the French heritage. Ranging across social, political, geographical and cultural lines - from prehistoric menhirs to the Pompidou Centre, from Louis XIV’s Versailles to twentieth-century high-rises, from Marie Antoinette to Marie Claire - the author provides a host of lively and penetrating new insights into the shaping of the modern nation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56637 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
‘Authoritative, well-written, solidly thought through, this book, which has no equivalent in recent writing about French history, should reach out beyond the British Isles to the English-speaking world in its entirety.’ Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

‘An awesome range of topics … the book is a veritable tour de force.’ French Cultural Studies

‘Good one-volume histories of France are not all that common, and after this one they might well become less so. This is because it is hard to see how it might be bettered … this book will be the obvious starting point for years to come for anglophones everywhere who want to know about the history of France.’ French Studies

Synopsis
Combining superb illustration with authoritative text, this is a major political and social history of France from earliest times to the eve of the new millennium. Colin Jones offers not only an expert's account of political, social and cultural developments, but also a fresh and full interpretation of French history. The Cambridge Illustrated History of France places an innovatory emphasis on the importance of issues of regionalism, class, gender and race in the French heritage. Ranging across social, political, geographical and cultural lines - from prehistoric menhirs to the Pompidou Centre, from Louis XIV's Versailles to twentieth-century high-rises, from Marie Antoinette to Marie Claire - the author provides a host of lively and penetrating new insights into the shaping of the modern nation.

Customer Reviews

Top quality tour d'horizon!
This is just one of the best books of its kind: an marvellously readable narrative of French history that is at once comprehensive and to the point. It is thankfully free of tedious social-history case-studies and nightmare paragraphs of disclaiming analysis, focusing instead on eliciting the stories and myths that France tells about itself. This is really good general history; well-written and accompanied (rather than dominated) by plenty of beautiful illustrations. C'est bon, je crois.

Confused and confusing
I really cannot understand at whom this book is aimed. It cannot be the specialist reader who would not buy a one volume history; and it cannot be the general reader like myself who bought it knowing virtually nothing of the history of France. I still know little of the history of France and what I do know has been gleaned from short guides bought in France. Remarks like King __ was murdered without indicating by whom or why are really unforgivable. There is certainly a gap in the English market for a history of our nearest neighbour and this book does not fill it; if only a writer of the caliber of a John Gillingham or Stephen Runcimann could do so.