Certain Ideas of France: Essays on French History and Civilization

(Hardback)

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The title of this book is inspired by the famous opening words of General de Gaulle's memoirs of World War II "All my life I have thought of France in a certain way". This is a collection of essays that deal with a variety of subjects such as culture, society, politics, and diplomacy, with one section devoted entirely to French historians. The first section contains a chapter on the painter Aryt Scheffer and the France of his time - the first half of the 19th century. The second chapter continues this theme and deals with Emile Zola and the Paris of the Second Empire. Two other chapters discuss aspects of the Third Republic, sports and students, respectively. The second section examines French intellectuals. It offers an in-depth analysis of the group of intellectuals that supported Zola and Dreyfus. The third section looks at politics and diplomacy. French foreign policy is discussed both in its long-term perspective as well as more specifically in the period of Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle's "idea of France" is compared with that of an author by whom he was greatly influenced, Charles Peguy. Finally there is a section on French history, including two biographical essays, one about Gabriel Hanotaux, and another about Fernand Braudel.

Reviews

[p]resents a sweeping personal reflection on various, and sometimes contradictory, imaginings of France and French civilization spanning the past to centuries....[a]ccessible to audiences without an in-depth knowladge of French history and culture as well as satisfying to those intimately acquainted with temporal procession of hexagon since 1815.... Certain Ideas of France delivers on what it promises, a survey of some notions of Frenchness and about France's role in the world written in essay format and, therefore, meant to inform and speculate on what are still considered to be fundamental "problems" for France today--the search for a definable and sustainable identity, as well as the recurring themes of decline and renewal that seem to be at the genesis of so many French nationalisms.-H-France Book Reviews
"presents a sweeping personal reflection on various, and sometimes contradictory, imaginings of France and French civilization spanning the past to centuries....accessible to audiences without an in-depth knowladge of French history and culture as well as satisfying to those intimately acquainted with temporal procession of hexagon since 1815.... Certain Ideas of France delivers on what it promises, a survey of some notions of Frenchness and about France's role in the world written in essay format and, therefore, meant to inform and speculate on what are still considered to be fundamental "problems" for France today--the search for a definable and sustainable identity, as well as the recurring themes of decline and renewal that seem to be at the genesis of so many French nationalisms."-H-France Book Reviews
"[p]resents a sweeping personal reflection on various, and sometimes contradictory, imaginings of France and French civilization spanning the past to centuries....[a]ccessible to audiences without an in-depth knowladge of French history and culture as well as satisfying to those intimately acquainted with temporal procession of hexagon since 1815.... Certain Ideas of France delivers on what it promises, a survey of some notions of Frenchness and about France's role in the world written in essay format and, therefore, meant to inform and speculate on what are still considered to be fundamental "problems" for France today--the search for a definable and sustainable identity, as well as the recurring themes of decline and renewal that seem to be at the genesis of so many French nationalisms."-H-France Book Reviews

Author Bio

H. L. WESSELING is Professor of General History at the University of Leiden and Rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study at Wassenaar. Among Professor Wesseling's many earlier publications are Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914 (Praeger, 1996), which has been translated into six languages, and Imperialism and Colonialism (Greenwood Press, 1997).