
Rethinking France
Les Lieux de m?moire, Volume 1: The State
University of Chicago Press
Published on 1. October 1999
Book
Hardback
516 pages
978-0-226-59132-2 (ISBN)
Description
"Les Lieux de Memoire" is perhaps one of the most profound historical documents on the history and culture of the French nation. Assembled by Pierre Nora during the Mitterand years, this multi-volume series has been hailed as "a magnificent achievement" ("The New Republic") and "the grandest, most ambitious effort to dissect, interpret and celebrate the French fascination with their own past" (The Los Angeles Times"). Written during a time when French national identity was undergoing a pivotal change and the nation was struggling to define itself, this unprecedented series consists of essays by prominent historians and cultural commentators which take, as their points of departure, a "lieu de memoire": a site of memory used to order, concentrate and secure notions of France's past. The first volume in the Chicago translation, "Rethinking France", brings together works addressing the omnipresent role of the state in French life. As in the other volumes, the "lieux de memoire" serve as entries into the French past, whether they are actual sites, political traditions, rituals or even national pastimes and textbooks.
"Volume I: The State" offers a sophisticated and engaging view of the French and their past through widely diverse essays on, for example, the chateau of Versailles and the French history of absolutism; the "Code civil" and its ordering of French life; memoirs written by French statesmen; and Charlemagne and his place in French history. Nora's contributors constitute a who's who of French academia, yet they wear their erudition lightly. Taken as a whole, this extraordinary series documents how the French have come to see themselves and why.
"Volume I: The State" offers a sophisticated and engaging view of the French and their past through widely diverse essays on, for example, the chateau of Versailles and the French history of absolutism; the "Code civil" and its ordering of French life; memoirs written by French statesmen; and Charlemagne and his place in French history. Nora's contributors constitute a who's who of French academia, yet they wear their erudition lightly. Taken as a whole, this extraordinary series documents how the French have come to see themselves and why.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 172 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
1247 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-59132-2 (9780226591322)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Pierre Nora is editorial director at Éditions Gallimard. Since 1977, he has been directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales. He is the founding editor of Le DÉbat and has directed the editorial work on Les Lieux de mÉmoire since 1984. In 2001 he was elected to the AcadÉmie Française. David P. Jordan is the LAS Distinguished Professor of French History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of Transforming Paris and The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre, both published by the University of Chicago Press.