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The French
This is a guide to France intended for the traveller who wants to get to know French people as individuals, for the negotiating businessman and for students who wishes to discover in-depth aspects of their lives. It looks at what makes up the national character of France.
560 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 1973
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About the author
Theodore Zeldin
75 books202 followersTheodore Zeldin CBE, President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is a Palestinean philosopher, sociologist, historian, writer and public speaker. Zeldin was first known as a historian of France but is today probably most famous internationally as the author of An Intimate History of Humanity (1994), a book which probes the personal preoccupations of people in many different civilisations, both in the past and in the present; it illuminates the way emotions, curiosities, relationships and fears have evolved through the centuries, and how they might have evolved differently. Since then he has focused on how work can be made less boring and frustrating, how conversation can be less superficial, and how individuals can be more honest with one another, putting their masks aside.
Zeldin's masterpiece is "A History of French Passions" (originally published as "France, 1848-1945" in the Oxford History of Modern Europe), an idiosyncratic work examining the ambitions and frustrations, intellectual and imaginative life, tastes and prejudices of a vast range of people. The idea of France as a common unity is not easily discernible in this multi-volume book, and there is very little about politics in the conventional sense, although there are essays on the national appeal of Bonapartism and other cultural elements of French national politics.
The Oxford Muse Foundation (www.oxfordmuse.com) was formed by Zeldin in 2001. It describes its aims as being "to pioneer new methods to improve personal, work and intercultural relationships in ways that satisfy both private and public values." One of its principal projects is the Muse Portrait Database. Individuals are free to submit their own self-portraits, including whatever they want the world to know about them. However, many of the portraits are written by another person in the "voice" of the subject, as the result of a conversation between the two. The Oxford Muse claims that, through such conversations, it can help people "to clarify their tastes, attitudes and goals in many different aspects of life; and to sum up the conclusions they have drawn from their experiences in their own words." A selection of these portraits can be found in "Guide to an Unknown City" (2004), which contains the writings of a wide variety of Oxford residents, and in "Guide to an Unknown University" (2006), which, Zeldin claimed, 'allowed professors, students, alumni, administrators and maintenance staff to reveal what they do not normally tell one another.
In 2007, Zeldin was appointed to a committee advising the French government of Nicolas Sarkozy on labour market reforms.
Zeldin's masterpiece is "A History of French Passions" (originally published as "France, 1848-1945" in the Oxford History of Modern Europe), an idiosyncratic work examining the ambitions and frustrations, intellectual and imaginative life, tastes and prejudices of a vast range of people. The idea of France as a common unity is not easily discernible in this multi-volume book, and there is very little about politics in the conventional sense, although there are essays on the national appeal of Bonapartism and other cultural elements of French national politics.
The Oxford Muse Foundation (www.oxfordmuse.com) was formed by Zeldin in 2001. It describes its aims as being "to pioneer new methods to improve personal, work and intercultural relationships in ways that satisfy both private and public values." One of its principal projects is the Muse Portrait Database. Individuals are free to submit their own self-portraits, including whatever they want the world to know about them. However, many of the portraits are written by another person in the "voice" of the subject, as the result of a conversation between the two. The Oxford Muse claims that, through such conversations, it can help people "to clarify their tastes, attitudes and goals in many different aspects of life; and to sum up the conclusions they have drawn from their experiences in their own words." A selection of these portraits can be found in "Guide to an Unknown City" (2004), which contains the writings of a wide variety of Oxford residents, and in "Guide to an Unknown University" (2006), which, Zeldin claimed, 'allowed professors, students, alumni, administrators and maintenance staff to reveal what they do not normally tell one another.
In 2007, Zeldin was appointed to a committee advising the French government of Nicolas Sarkozy on labour market reforms.
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December 28, 2017Some years ago I heard Theodore Zeldin speak on the radio, his tone and manner - hs consistent interest and engagement with the stories that people had to tell about themselves and their lives was very attractive. I formed the certain impression that he was bearded, and seeing from his author photo that he is instead clean-shaven I can only console myself with the possibility that he was hairy when he was recorded for the radio.
Zeldin wrote and taught a great deal on the history of modern France, so a study of the French nation was a natural progression. The book was originally published in the early 1980s when Mitterrand was President and since much of the information, statistical and the interviews he conducted, must therefore be at least a little older, it is a picture of France in the 1970s and so quite probably a bit dated now. I can only say probably since my knowledge of France is larger restricted to the occasional cross-channel raid to acquire cheap Brandy and washing powder, leaving me with the lasting impression that French channel ports are slightly less shabby than British ones and that shop assistants in their hypermarkets wear roller-skates to get around their stores.
Anyway, Zeldin wanders from person to person, collecting their impressions, tempering them with a little statistical evidence from time to time, sharing anecdotes about the French Academy and the French publishing business - which revealed to me that Foucaults Pendulum is substantially a work of non-fiction at least in its presentation of the publishing house. The interviews that particularly caught my attention were of the people outside Paris, but inevitably the best thing about the book is that Zeldin doesn't believe that there can be a national identity, although he saves mentioning this right up until page 509 of a 513 page book, which certainly shows an adroit and confident sense of timing.
At that point this is what he has to say:
these worries about whether France is losing its identity, and how it relates to other major countries, seem to me to be relics of nineteenth-century attitudes, as well as of habits of speech that go back much further. To describe a nation of 54 million, still less one of 200 million, in a single phrase, to attribute to all its inhabitants identical moral qualities, that in any case are hard enough to be certain about when dealing with one individual or family, is a natural reaction to the complexity of the world, but it is a habit born of despair, which persists because there seems no obvious way of avoiding it (p509). This picks up on something he mentioned at the beginning of the book - how national stereotypes are things that we aspire to, ideas that we cling to, ways that we want ourselves, or more likely those round us to be seen, rather than reflections of reality.
Naturally it follows that what Zeldin offers is a mosaic rather than a broad-brush tricolour, patriotically red, white, and blue. This is then the book in which you learn that the baguette only began to appear in the 1950s and was originally very much shorter than the modern version, while the beret became headgear of choice only in the 1930s. It is a quotable book and full of tasty nuggets - this I have paid inadequate homage to in the selection of quotes offered up below. Despite my tenuous French connections, and the complete absence in my life so far of high speed car chases through New York, I found this a very enjoyable and urbane read, and recommend it as something easily digestible even without being well filled with Eau de vie, although doubtless it will have more to offer to those whose affiliation with France is stronger.
Zeldin wrote and taught a great deal on the history of modern France, so a study of the French nation was a natural progression. The book was originally published in the early 1980s when Mitterrand was President and since much of the information, statistical and the interviews he conducted, must therefore be at least a little older, it is a picture of France in the 1970s and so quite probably a bit dated now. I can only say probably since my knowledge of France is larger restricted to the occasional cross-channel raid to acquire cheap Brandy and washing powder, leaving me with the lasting impression that French channel ports are slightly less shabby than British ones and that shop assistants in their hypermarkets wear roller-skates to get around their stores.
Anyway, Zeldin wanders from person to person, collecting their impressions, tempering them with a little statistical evidence from time to time, sharing anecdotes about the French Academy and the French publishing business - which revealed to me that Foucaults Pendulum is substantially a work of non-fiction at least in its presentation of the publishing house. The interviews that particularly caught my attention were of the people outside Paris, but inevitably the best thing about the book is that Zeldin doesn't believe that there can be a national identity, although he saves mentioning this right up until page 509 of a 513 page book, which certainly shows an adroit and confident sense of timing.
At that point this is what he has to say:
these worries about whether France is losing its identity, and how it relates to other major countries, seem to me to be relics of nineteenth-century attitudes, as well as of habits of speech that go back much further. To describe a nation of 54 million, still less one of 200 million, in a single phrase, to attribute to all its inhabitants identical moral qualities, that in any case are hard enough to be certain about when dealing with one individual or family, is a natural reaction to the complexity of the world, but it is a habit born of despair, which persists because there seems no obvious way of avoiding it (p509). This picks up on something he mentioned at the beginning of the book - how national stereotypes are things that we aspire to, ideas that we cling to, ways that we want ourselves, or more likely those round us to be seen, rather than reflections of reality.
Naturally it follows that what Zeldin offers is a mosaic rather than a broad-brush tricolour, patriotically red, white, and blue. This is then the book in which you learn that the baguette only began to appear in the 1950s and was originally very much shorter than the modern version, while the beret became headgear of choice only in the 1930s. It is a quotable book and full of tasty nuggets - this I have paid inadequate homage to in the selection of quotes offered up below. Despite my tenuous French connections, and the complete absence in my life so far of high speed car chases through New York, I found this a very enjoyable and urbane read, and recommend it as something easily digestible even without being well filled with Eau de vie, although doubtless it will have more to offer to those whose affiliation with France is stronger.
November 17, 2020
This is a very interesting book regarding the French people and there attitudes, life styles and other interesting insights into understanding and learning to get along and enjoy living or associating with French people. The book, for me, was just a little too long and contained to much material that was really not very interesting to me. I believe the author tried to show his knowledge in to much detain and therefore went into detail in areas that could have been described in a much shorter manner. The book was way to long and did not keep my interest.
July 12, 2019
A sketch of France as of late 70's made of anecdotal evidence and personal observations. Has some historical value, as you can surprise your contemporary French friends with facts they never heard of. Still looking for a similar book published over last ~3 years, any suggestions?
June 8, 2023
Very interesting. Have a new perspective on the French. Written in 1983, it is probably horribly out of date now, but interesting nonetheless.
July 8, 2024
Relied a lot on stereotypes and didn't find it massively insightful
February 19, 2009
Intriguing, and I like the style of writing. Not something I would read through in full, but fun to come back to. I am also interested in reading Zeldins other books as studies on people, I think he has a keen eye and interesting perspective. And super strange retention for historical detail and anecdote-y goodness.
August 5, 2009
Wonderful book. I read this in English of course.
December 27, 2015
No data, just anecdotes from 30+ years ago.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews