The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography
by Graham Robb
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Book Summary Information
Author: Graham RobbEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-17
ISBN: 0393333647
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780393333640
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography
Book Review: The pleasures of travel do not go to the swift...
Summary: 5 Stars
...nor the knowledge either. Graham Robb's background for writing this book included bike trips through France totaling 14,000 miles, as well as four years in a library. He has written a truly different book about France--a paradigm shifter for many a reader--as he said in the introduction: "...a book in which the inhabitants were not airlifted from the land for statistical process, in which `France' and `the French' would mean something more than Paris and a few powerful individuals, and in which the past was not a refuge from the present but a means of understanding and enjoying it." (Yet another variation of Faulkner's dictum: "The past is not dead, it is not even the past."). Other reviewers have compared his work to Braudel; I'd suggest Theodore Zeldin.
The book starts with the murder in the 1740's of a surveyor who was working on a mapping project headed by Cassini. The surveyor was in the Auvergne, and the natives were very suspicious of outsiders in general, and certainly those carrying strange tools. A significant aspect of Robb's book involves the survey, yes, the actual "discovery" of the topography of France. In later sections he covers the work of Delambre and Mechain, famous for inventing the meter as a uniform unit of measure, now adapted by the entire world, except the USA. They were responsible for mapping the prime meridian throughout France--this was the concept that did not win universal recognition, as we know, the prime meridian in use today passes through Greenwich, England.
The core of the book is an ethnological examination of the "tribes" of France, and the process by which they finally coalesced into the country we now recognize as "the Hexagon." A portion of this process was lead by Abbe Gregoire, who filed a report shortly after the French revolution, entitled "the Necessity and Means of Exterminating Patois and Universalizing the Use of the French Language." A telling linguistic map of the country at this time reveals that in almost half the departements of modern France the majority of the individuals did not speak French. Robb examines the concept of "pays," normally translated as "country" but is generally used by the French to refer to the specific locale of their birth. I found the chapter "Fairies, Virgins, Gods, and Priests" particularly illuminating. The author shows how modern religion(s), particularly the Catholic Church, co-opted earlier "pagan" religious practices and customs. Another significant aspect of the book is his examination of the manner in which people traveled, including the mass migrations of people, for example, from Savoy to Paris. Robb even includes an entire chapter devoted to the animals, the "60 million others."
As a dedicated Francophile who has lived in France, on and off, for three years I was amazed at how much new information Robb had to convey--one of the other reviewers, an American in Provence for five years said much the same thing. Virtually every other page contains nuggets of information, and a different, even wry way of looking at existing facts. Consider in his Epilogue, he refers to the soulless concrete high-rises in the banlieue, which contain so many immigrants, as "bidonvilles," the term usually reserved for areas surrounding the major cities in the former colonies, where poor immigrants from the rural areas live in shacks. He also describes the background on one of France's most revered writers, Alain-Fournier, and now there is even a "Grand Meaulnes" rest area off the A-71 autoroute! Robb also recaps the quixotic efforts of the Duchesse de Berry to seize power in the 1830's.
In terms of geographical discoveries, one of Robb's most amazing revelations is that the Gorge du Verdon, which is located only 100 km to the east of the heart of Provence, was not discovered, by the outside world, until 1906. Although Robb does not make this point, this is approximately 40 years AFTER Powell's expedition down the Grand Canyon, so a reasonable assertion could be that the unity and revelation of the topography of the United States occurred prior to that of France, in "old Europe."
Robb has written a magnificent book that truly illuminates France, its citizens, and its history, for the French, and non-French alike. The years in the library were well-spent, and the aching calf muscles, from seeing France at the speed it is best appreciated, from a bicycle, have been most beneficial for all of us. Robb chooses to end his book though, not on a note of bucolic joy; rather he covers a telling antecedent to one of the central issues of our time. On the night of 17 October 1961, in an event unknown to 80% of the French population today, "... it is certain that many Algerians were tortured, maimed and stuffed into dustbins, and that about two hundred were beaten up by policemen and thrown into the Seine, where they drowned, in the tourist heart of Paris." Concerning events in the last couple of years, the Minister of Interior used the term "racaille" (scum) for the rioters.
So the tribal conflicts of the time of Alain-Fournier have been put to rest, yet new ones have arisen. Robb's book is in that rare category that requires Amazon to offer 6-etoiles.
Summary of The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography
"A witty, engaging narrative style....[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing."?New York Times Book Review, front-page review
A narrative of exploration?full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants?that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France?past and present?remains to be discovered. A New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, Slate Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice. 16 pages of illustrationsFrance Books
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