Few people know the history of France as well as Colin Jones, and this sprightly overview is studded with fascinating detail as well as giving us the big picture.
France has long been feted for its unsurpassed cultural and historical riches. Gothic architecture, Louis XIV opulence, revolutionary spirit, café society . . . what could be more quintessentially French? Rarely do we think of France as a melting pot, and yet historian Colin Jones asserts it's no less a mélange of foreign ingredients than the United States--and by some measures, more so.The Shortest History of France reveals a nation whose politics and society have always been shaped by global forces. With up-to-date scholarship that avoids the traps of national exceptionalism, Jones reminds us that it was only after the…
This beautifully written and produced book gives us a whole new understanding of France's famous wind by placing it in cultural history as well as geography.
An in-depth look at the hidden power of the mistral wind and its effect on modern French history.
Every year, the chilly mistral wind blows through the Rhone valley of southern France, across the Camargue wetlands, and into the Mediterranean Sea. Most forceful when winter turns to spring, the wind knocks over trees, sweeps trains off their tracks, and destroys crops. Yet the mistral turns the sky clear and blue, as it often appears in depictions of Provence. The legendary wind is central to the area's regional identity and has inspired artists and writers near and far for centuries.
An exploration of shifting landscapes-both real and represented-in nineteenth-century France and the role of images in both picturing and producing those shifts
What is the relationship between land and landscape? This engaging study examines the role landscape depictions played in the formation of modern France and reveals how art and visual culture contributed to the physical and symbolic shaping of the nation. Spanning more than a century, from the post-revolutionary period through to the early twentieth century, Land into Landscape explores political and environmental shifts alongside changes in landscape representation across a variety of media, including paintings, photographs, prints, porcelain,…
The French landscape is deeply valued by millions of tourists as well as French people themselves, but that landscape has been created by humans, through agriculture, infrastructure and war. What has been the impact of the Anthropocene?
