Description
Book SynopsisOffers the best essays from the acclaimed collection originally published in French. This monumental work examines how and why events and figures become a part of a people's collective memory, how rewriting history can forge new paradigms of cultural identity, and how the meaning attached to an event can become as significant as the event itself.
Trade ReviewThis is an indispensable guide to understanding France and the French. As usual, Arthur Goldhammer's translation is superb. Foreign Affairs This unusual book deals fascinatingly with everything from the creation of the rousing anthem "La Marseillaise" to the changing role of Joan of Arc in France's collective memory. Even the Eiffel Tower shines forth in surprising new facets. Chicago Tribune Provides arresting genealogies of a number of the major cleavages in French history, with chapters on the embattled relationship of Jews to the French republic, the peculiar affinities of Gaulism and Communism, and... Paris' haughty condescension toward la province... Without resorting to polemics, the volume reminds us that the image of the French past is confected as much out of amnesia as out of memory. Lingua Franca A magisterial attempt to define what it is to be French. Times Literary Supplement A magnificent achievement... [The essays included] are the high-carat jewels of the project. The New Republic
Table of ContentsIntroduction, by Pierre Nora Part I: Emblems 1. The Three Colors: Neither White nor Red, by Raoul Girardet 2. La Marseillaise: War or Peace, by Michel Vovelle 3. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, by Mona Ozouf 4. Bastille Day: From Dies Irae to Holiday, by Christian Almavi Part II: Major Sites 1. Lascaux, by Jean-Paul Demoule 2. Reims, City of Coronation, by Jacques Le Goff 3. The Louvre, Royal Residence and Temple of the Arts, by Jean-Pierre Babelon 4. Versailles, the Image of the Sovereign, by Edouard Pommier 5. The Pantheon, The Ecole Normale of the Dead, by Mona Ozouf 6. The Eiffel Tower, by Henry Loyette 7. Verdun, by Antoine Prost Part III: Identifications 1. The Gallic Cock, by Michael Pastoureau 2. Joan of Arc, by Michael Winock 3. Descartes, by Francois Azouvi 4. Paris, A Traversal from East to West, by Maurice Agulhon 5. The Genius of the French Language, by Marc Fumaroli 6. The Era of Commemoration, by Pierre Nora Notes Index of Names Index of Subjects
