next »

[dept_geek]

You all did a marvelous job recommending readings regarding French history pre-1500. So it's time to move up a century or two.... What can you recommend for 1500 to 1800-ish? Recall, please, that my French is not so great, so if you know of English version that would be great.  Lets look at politics, culture, and general who"s related to whom stuff. 

[systeme_d_]

I don't know what you've read thus far, Dept_geek, and I am not near my books on this topic, but off the top of my head, here are a few favorites of mine:

Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Simon Schama, Citizens

[wegie]

The standard introduction has for years been Robin Briggs' Early Modern France 1560-1715 (2nd edn). Although I've also seen some recommendations for Beik A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France.

If you want to place France in continental context in the later part of the period, Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory is an excellent survey.

[fleabite]

I recommend the following:

Napoleon: A Political Life, by Stephen Englund.

Revolution in Print: The Press in France 1775-1800, edited by R. Darnton & D. Roche.

[dept_geek]

Thanks all!  What else is on your bookshelf? 

<wanders off to order some books from the library>

[llanfair]

If you're interested in the sixteenth-century agonies of the Wars of Religion - from a religious/cultural standpoint, that is - try Barbara Diefendorf's Beneath the Cross.  Fascinating look at the mindsets of both Catholics and Huguenots.

For the later eighteenth century, I liked Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Christine Pevitt Algrant's Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France and  Joan Haslip's Madame du Barry, too.  They're all very good for the court culture of Versailles and the real world outside its gates.

Then, finally, Marilyn Yalom's Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory.

[mickeymantle]

I wonder if anyone really enjoyed Schama's book.  I knew someone in graduate school who joked that it was one of the most remaindered books in used bookstores. 

[dolljepopp]

It is a narrow slice of French history, but I am fond of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Carnival in Romans: Mayhem and Massacre in a French City.

[llanfair]

I wonder if anyone really enjoyed Schama's book.  I knew someone in graduate school who joked that it was one of the most remaindered books in used bookstores. 

Well, I tried to get into it, but found his style pretentious and irritating, so I gave up.  Perhaps that's it.  (And you'll notice I didn't recommend that one!)

[mickeymantle]

Yes, I dragged myself through Citizens, not because it was in my field, but just for the heck of it.  Reminded me of a long mountain hike I took, once.

[merce]

You all did a marvelous job recommending readings regarding French history pre-1500. ...

We did? Someone did?

Can someone post the link to that thread? I may have missed it.

[llanfair]

Yes, I dragged myself through Citizens, not because it was in my field, but just for the heck of it.  Reminded me of a long mountain hike I took, once.

Rather like beating your head against a brick wall: it feels so good when you stop.

[dept_geek]

You all did a marvelous job recommending readings regarding French history pre-1500. ...

We did? Someone did?

Can someone post the link to that thread? I may have missed it

This books on this list: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,66376.0.html  were exactly what I was looking for.

<notes mickeymantles "What not to read" book, wanders back to the library>

PS. You guys are great. Thank you.

[frenchdoctor]

I suggest Marc Fumaroli, who mixes history and literature

http://lccn.loc.gov/2002007576

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010034847


François Furet books on the Revolution have been translated :

http://lccn.loc.gov/70081243

http://lccn.loc.gov/96024632

http://lccn.loc.gov/91047098

Furet was a balanced historian in a field that is overwhelmed by political considerations. History of the revolution is more often an ideological battleground than a scholarly specialty, so poor history abounds.

You should send a PM to the forumite "Parispundit", by the way. It's right his field. He should give you some references on the 2nd Empire, an interesting period that is often overlooked.

[wegie]

Yes, I dragged myself through Citizens, not because it was in my field, but just for the heck of it.  Reminded me of a long mountain hike I took, once.

Yeah. And without the stop for lunch at the nice hutte selling rosti, kaiserschmarrn and weissbier.

An Embarrassment of Riches was actually rather good, so I went and bought Citizens as soon as it came out in paperback (rather a large chunk of my postgraduate grant for the week in question). I don't think that the book even made the move from grad school town to first job city . . .