Synopses & Reviews
Examines the nation-building process of continual re-creation and re-invention of more than two hundred years of the history of France. It explores the complex task of creating unity while reconciling regional, religious and cultural diversity in a nation. Divided into three sections, it covers French history, experience and identity, and seeks to integrate conventional political history with insight into nation-building. Themes such as social conflict, civil war and revolution, identity and difference, gender, colonialism and decolonization, religion, material and popular culture, and the devastation of war are examined in light of the evolution and continual reinvention of France.
This new study will be of interest not only to students of modern and contemporary France, but also to those who want to understand the ways in which national identities are created and evolve within modern society. Timothy Baycroft is a Senior Lecturer in French History at the University of Sheffield, UK. France: Inventing the Nation examines the nation-building process of continual re-creation and re-invention of more than two hundred years of the history of France. He explores the complex task of creating unity while reconciling regional, religious and cultural diversity in a nation.
Divided into three sections, it covers French history, experience and identity, and seeks to integrate conventional political history with insight into nation-building. Themes such as social conflict, civil war and revolution, identity and difference, gender, colonialism and decolonization, religion, material and popular culture, and the devastation of war are examined in light of the evolution and continual reinvention of France. "A variable volume in an important new series . . . this effective book considers the way in which constructions of French identity have interacted with political contention. The result is a valuable reading of French history from the Revolutionary period on."Jeremy Black, The Historical Association "A variable volume in an important new series . . . this effective book considers the way in which constructions of French identity have interacted with political contention. The result is a valuable reading of French history from the Revolutionary period on."Jeremy Black, The Historical Association
Review
"A variable volume in an important new series...this effective book considers the way in which constructions of French identity have interacted with political contention. The result is a valuable reading of French history from the Revolutionary period on."—Jeremy Black, The Historical Association
Synopsis
Examines the nation-building process of continual re-creation and re-invention of more than two hundred years of the history of France. It explores the complex task of creating unity while reconciling regional, religious and cultural diversity in a nation. Divided into three sections, it covers French history, experience and identity, and seeks to integrate conventional political history with insight into nation-building. Themes such as social conflict, civil war and revolution, identity and difference, gender, colonialism and decolonization, religion, material and popular culture, and the devastation of war are examined in light of the evolution and continual reinvention of France.
This new study will be of interest not only to students of modern and contemporary France, but also to those who want to understand the ways in which national identities are created and evolve within modern society.
Synopsis
This study of France examines the nation-building process of continual re-creation and re-invention over more than two hundred years. It explores the complex task of creating unity while reconciling diversity, be it regional, religious or cultural, in a nation profoundly divided since the Revolution. Divided into three sections covering the invention of French history, experience and identity, it seeks to integrate more conventional political history with an examination of nation-building from the margins and through manifold images and representations of the nation. Themes such as social conflict, civil war and revolution, identity and difference, gender, colonialism and decolonization, religion, material and popular culture, and the devastation of war are examined in light of the evolution and continual reinvention of France.
This new study will be of interest not only to students of modern and contemporary France, but also to those who want to understand the ways in which national identities are created and evolve within modern society.
Synopsis
"A variable volume in an important new series...this effective book considers the way in which constructions of French identity have interacted with political contention. The result is a valuable reading of French history from the Revolutionary period on."—Jeremy Black, The Historical Association
About the Author
Timothy Baycroft is a Senior Lecturer in French History at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I Inventing French history
The French Revolution and the nation 1789-1815
The battle for the French nation: 1815-1940
Defeat and its aftermath 1940-1944
Modern France 1944-2000
Part II Inventing French experience
Living in French society
Militarism and war
Revolution or civil war
Colonies and imperialism
Part III Inventing French identity
Cultural representations
Religion and the French Republic
French identity and difference
Conclusion