by Rod Kedward

Everyone tries to pigeonhole France.  The vast numbers who travel there, or who discuss the French from across the Atlantic, produce judgments that express everything from adulation to irritation.  France and the French, it seems, remain resolutely mysterious and inexplicable. 

In the elegantly written and exhaustively researched narrative history FRANCE AND THE FRENCH (The Overlook Press / January 19, 2005 / $35.00 hardcover / ISBN: 1-58567-733-7), Rod Kedward brings to life the great, and often terrible, dramas of modern France—the two cataclysmic wars, the Algerian disaster, the student and worker revolt of 1968—but also explores the special worlds of the workplace, immigration, minorities, the role of women, and the relationship of politics to place, everyday life, and collective memory.  Kedward’s narrative of France in the 20th century is woven from a plurality of histories, while stressing that a unitary France was volubly asserted throughout the century and is still prevalent in French politics today.  A great, complex culture emerges from these pages:  a culture whose arguments with itself have been as profound as any of the changes since 1900. 

FRANCE AND THE FRENCH is a compelling account of a country and a people who confronted and created military, political, and social pressures of dramatic intensity.  Judgments will still be made and pigeonholes found, but the rich narratives of his book anchor French identities firmly in their own impassioned history.

With the current political climate spawning charming titles such as Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice, and Cheese, Rod Kedward’s FRANCE AND THE FRENCH provides a refreshingly intelligent and level-headed analysis of the recent history of the country and people that have figured so prominently in our national debate in recent times.  Kedward offers a solid blend of cultural and political analysis all delivered in a conversational style, as amusing for its anecdotes as it is insightful and up-to-date in its analysis, to probe the elusive and indefinable qualities—the ‘je ne sais quoi’—of France’s distinct national identity.  With the continuing focus on France in the media, surrounding the controversy over France’s refusal to participate in the Iraq War and its central role in the European Union, FRANCE AND THE FRENCHis a must-read for Francophiles and anyone interested in contemporary global politics and culture.