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Author: Sarah Maza Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674040724 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Who, exactly, were the French bourgeoisie? Unlike the Anglo-Americans, who widely embraced middle-class ideals and values, the French--even the most affluent and conservative--have always rejected and maligned bourgeois values and identity. In this new approach to the old question of the bourgeoisie, Sarah Maza focuses on the crucial period before, during, and after the French Revolution, and offers a provocative answer: the French bourgeoisie has never existed. Despite the large numbers of respectable middling town-dwellers, no group identified themselves as bourgeois. Drawing on political and economic theory and history, personal and polemical writings, and works of fiction, Maza argues that the bourgeoisie was never the social norm. In fact, it functioned as a critical counter-norm, an imagined and threatening embodiment of materialism, self-interest, commercialism, and mass culture, which defined all that the French rejected. A challenge to conventional wisdom about modern French history, this book poses broader questions about the role of anti-bourgeois sentiment in French culture, by suggesting parallels between the figures of the bourgeois, the Jew, and the American in the French social imaginary. It is a brilliant and timely foray into our beliefs and fantasies about the social world and our definition of a social class.
Author: Sarah Maza Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674040724 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Who, exactly, were the French bourgeoisie? Unlike the Anglo-Americans, who widely embraced middle-class ideals and values, the French--even the most affluent and conservative--have always rejected and maligned bourgeois values and identity. In this new approach to the old question of the bourgeoisie, Sarah Maza focuses on the crucial period before, during, and after the French Revolution, and offers a provocative answer: the French bourgeoisie has never existed. Despite the large numbers of respectable middling town-dwellers, no group identified themselves as bourgeois. Drawing on political and economic theory and history, personal and polemical writings, and works of fiction, Maza argues that the bourgeoisie was never the social norm. In fact, it functioned as a critical counter-norm, an imagined and threatening embodiment of materialism, self-interest, commercialism, and mass culture, which defined all that the French rejected. A challenge to conventional wisdom about modern French history, this book poses broader questions about the role of anti-bourgeois sentiment in French culture, by suggesting parallels between the figures of the bourgeois, the Jew, and the American in the French social imaginary. It is a brilliant and timely foray into our beliefs and fantasies about the social world and our definition of a social class.
Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0195308883 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 253
Book Description
The French writer Francois Mauriac once predicted that "when de Gaulle will be here no longer, he will still be here." This insight has proved prophetic. In contemporary France, Charles de Gaulle has become a figure of legend, consistently acclaimed as the nation's pre-eminent "historical" figure. Central to this popularity is the recognition of his pivotal role as the founder, and then the leader, of the Resistance movement during the Second World War. Once might be tempted to conclude that it is the man who became mythical, not the institutions he created. But here, the paradoxes abound. For one thing, his personal popularity sits oddly with his social origins and professional background. Neither the nobility, nor the Catholic Church, nor the Army is particularly well-regarded in France today: in their different ways, they all symbolize antiquated traditions and values. So why, then, do the French nonetheless identify with, celebrate, and even revere this austere and devout nobleman, who remained closely wedded to military values throughout his life? In the Shadow of the General resolves this mystery and explains how de Gaulle has to come occupy such a privileged position in the French imagination. Sudhir Hazareesingh's story of how an individual life transformed into national myth also tells a great deal about the French collective self in the twenty-first century: its fractured memory, its aspirations to greatness, and its manifold anxieties. Alongside the tale of de Gaulle's legacy, a much broader narrative unfolds: the story of modern France.
Author: Eugen Weber Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674595767 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 428
Book Description
My France focuses on some of the most intriguing aspects of French life: politics, myths, personalities, public problems, actions, and conflicts. The topics Weber treats range from sports to religion, and include comments on folklore, national socialism, antisemitism, and famous Frenchmen.
Author: François Thomazeau Publisher: New York Review of Books ISBN: 9781892145345 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
This guide captures the true character and flavour of the most intimate and affordable eating places Paris has to offer, ranging from the traditional to the newly fashionable. 51 bistros are judged by the standard of food, wine and atmosphere.
Author: Valerie Holman Publisher: Berghahn Books ISBN: 9781571817709 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 180
Book Description
"There are suggestive and interesting contributions ... Historians of modern France and historians interested in the cultural aspects of war will find much to engage with in this stimulating collection." - French History France experienced four major conflicts in the fifty years between 1914 and 1964: two world wars, and the wars in Indochina and Algeria. In each the role of myth was intricately bound up with memory, hope, belief, and ideas of nation. This is the first book to explore how individual myths were created, sustained, and used for purposes of propaganda, examining in detail not just the press, radio, photographs, posters, films, and songs that gave credence to an imagined event or attributed mythical status to an individual, but also the cultural processes by which such artifacts were disseminated and took effect. Reliance on myth, so the authors argue, is shown to be one of the most significant and durable features of 20th century warfare propaganda, used by both sides in all the conflicts covered in this book. However, its effective and useful role in time of war notwithstanding, it does distort a population's perception of reality and therefore often results in defeat: the myth-making that began as a means of sustaining belief in France's supremacy, and later her will and ability to resist, ultimately proved counterproductive in the process of decolonization.
Author: R. E. Asher Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
"It was the seventh-century Chronicle of Fredegar which first gave the Franks a Trojan ancestry, and the lineage stuck. This fascinating new study shows how, even as late as the sixteenth century, historians and poets found the lure of the eponymic hero Francus, the Glorious Druids and the Great Celtic Past irresistible. It describes how, obsessed with the origins of their country and the prevailing nationalism of the age, early sixteenth-century writers were largely uncritical of their highly spurious sources - even acknowledged forgeries such as those of Annius of Viterbo. However, a desire to replace fiction with fact gradually took hold as the Renaissance progressed, and National Myths examines the reasons for this change of mood and discusses the emotional satisfaction afforded by a belief in the Trojan and Gallic legends." "With its topical themes of nationalism and the politicisation of history, this book sheds new light on Renaissance historiography and on the history of ideas in general."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Sarah Maza
Author: Sarah Maza
Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
Author: Eugen Weber
Author: Raymond Rudorff
Author: Alfred Cobban
Author: François Thomazeau
Author: Valerie Holman
Author: C. G. Crisp
Author: R. E. Asher
Author: Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski