France A short history

Black (emer., Univ. of Exeter, UK) surveys France from prehistory to the present. His chronological approach spotlights major places, politics, struggles, and wars and incorporates economic, social, religious, cultural, environmental, intellectual, historiographical, and pathogenic developments. Black unveils parallels and suggests sights worth seeing. Notably absent are Peter Abelard, Christine de Pisan, Michel de Montaigne, Blaise Pascal, Émilie du Châtelet, and Simone de Beauvoir. Black insists on French diversity, complexity, and unpredictability; he emphasizes the compatibility of crisis with peace and the slow evolution of the French nation. He stresses change, continuity, and human action, revealing a contentious fractionalized history. Conservatism emerges as a prominent trend associated with privileges, economic interests, and identities. The author argues that state developments rest on a resilient historical process of consent based on compromise. He discerns modern transitions from conflict toward multilateralism and social forbearance yet concludes that unhappy electorates, a "revolutionary spirit," beleaguered Christianity, and modern challenges, including right-wing extremism, confront the contemporary French nation. Voltaire's reasons for tolerance meaningfully resound, enlightened in the face of a global pandemic and an unpredictable future. Noticeably, there are no notes. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students; professionals. --Lorraine A. Rollo, formerly, Millersville University