Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (Cambridge Illustrated Histories)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an outstanding introduction to French history and yet another excellent volume in the Cambridge Illustrated Histories series. I must admit to being somewhat confused by the two-star review it received, and especially confused by the grounds upon which it was granted only two stars. The book on the one hand is working with a preordained format, so that it will be consistent with other books in the series. On the other hand, the book is an introductory work, and excessive detail should not be expected in any introductory work. The book contains an exhaustive bibliography, and if greater detail is needed on any of the subjects discussed, one is pointed in the right direction. But as someone who has read the book from cover to cover and who did not see the need for returning it, let me firmly assert that this is a flat out magnificent introductory work.

Colin Jones does a marvelous job of balancing several aspects of history narrative in this volume. On the one hand, he does not neglect the "great men", covering all the primary and familiar figures in French history, from Charlemagne to Henry IV to Richelieu to Louis XIV to Napoleon to the present. But neither does he neglect the lives of everyday folk. He does an especially good job of discussing the status of women through France's history, a subject left out of too many general surveys. Jones also does a good job of balancing a discussion of military, economic, religious, and cultural factors from generation to generation in France. By the end of the volume, the reader will have been exposed to virtually every aspect of French history.

This is an extraordinarily handsome and well-made, large-format paperback. There are numerous full color illustrations, marvelously chosen, many with detailed asides on the subject illustrated.

In short, if you are looking for a superb introduction to French history, you will be hard pressed to do better than this volume.

As one who had never read any comprehensive history of France, I recommend this book without reservation. It covers from prehistory to today, it is well written, the illustrations are well chosen, and it is concise. A pleasure to read.

Colin Jones's Cambridge Illustrated History of France is a wonderful book. I recommend it to all my students. The text is absolutely first-rate - concise and to the point, stylish, always engaging - and the illustrations are nothing short of gorgeous. If you want a quick summary of French history, here it is! With plenty of references to go further...

Reviewing this excellent book on French history for the layperson makes me feel inadequate to the task - it is that good. What can one say about the best, but superlatives.

You will want to read this at one sitting, but unless you read very, very fast you must try to pace yourself. It is that engrossing. This is a thorough, but not pedantic, history of the largest country in Europe.

From prehistoric times before the end of the last ice age, to the end of the twentieth century, a great people and a beautiful language developed under the anvil of continual challenges.

It is true, this is something of a 'coffee table' book; but it is quite meaty. I meant by that gratuitous remark, that it is well illustrated but not in a way that detracts from the excellent text. The author is an expert in his field, be sure of that.

Reading this book is a great adventure; you won't think the same about the French nation after this.

This is an excellent book for those interested in learning about French history. Very readable, with wonderful illustrations and side pieces. I wish my textbooks had been like this when I was in school!

I've been something of a histroy buff all of my life. This has been mostly ancient Greek and Roman history and history of Britain. I decided a change of pace would be nice and to learn more of the development of the neighboring country of France. I'd been a great fan of the style of Simon Shama and his approach of emphasizing socio-economic developments along with the usual kings, queens and wars genre of histories of my 50's college days. Looking over the offerings of Amazon.com, I took a chance on Colin Jones "France" in the Cambridge Illustrated History series and am certainly glad I did. (I also like to look at pictures). This book is truly a story of the development of the peoples and the rough and tumble way they came to be a single nation by a series of chances and luck. All of this is presented with a view of the socio-economic patterns and the ebb and flow of the emerging culture. My English history bakground gave me a source of comparison as I read of similar developments of the French peoples across the channel. Such areas as the citizen and the law, equalizing of the privileged classes, enfranchisement for voting and the place of women in society. It was amazing to me that women did not have the right to vote until after the second world war in France. So much of Colin Jones informative writing is relevant to the place of the country in todays world: warts and all. I highly recommend the book for the approach to the subject that Mr. Jones takes and the flow of his writing craft that makes for easy, unencombered interesting reading.

Context: I'm not an academic or a scholar; I've been to France for several vacations and I'm taking my daughter for the first time this summer. I wanted to know more than the few pages in Fodor's. This books was perfect. It has intertesting illustrations, and is written at a level that a layperson can easily understand. It was engaging to read. I got a lot from it, and if you have an interest in France as a traveller, I imagine it would be time well spent for you as well.

The book was disappointing. I returned it. I was looking for something with much more detail. The book seemed to be written at a middle school or early high school level.

I ordered this thinking I would get a balanced, scholarly work that would give both sides fairly. Instead, this book is almost pathetic in its inability to cover any subject without blathering inane, politically correct indoctrination. It will tell you only some of the facts involved in any given situation , slant them heavily towards a leftist interpretation, and leave out anything that does not agree with that interpretation. I bought this thinking a university such as Cambridge would value its reputation, and not allow this type of blatantly slanted work. I was wrong. For example, It gives the entire period of the Napoleonic wars three pages. Similarly, it gives 3 pages for all of World War I. You do not know how the war started, what happened during the war, only a few battles are mentioned, and about 2 of the 3 pages are devoted to telling you that the soldiers were constantly in a state of mutiny (rising up as good masses should). Is this the stuff that is being taught in today's schools? How in the world can anyone consider themselves educated if they are not told the basic facts of what happened, and are only given the author's weird and unremittingly leftist interpretation of things? Communists are treated as heroes in every situation. There are constant unthinking, uncritical comments about how women are oppressed by evil men. (Women are portrayed as activists, "taking direct action", heroically striving for justice against overwhelming powers of oppression). How pathetic that truth, fairness and accuracy have been supplanted by pure political indoctrination. How pathetic that Cambridge, one of the world's (formerly?) great Universities has sanctioned pure drivel. (At the same time, I ordered the Cambridge history of the Islamic World - and got the same drivel - the west is bad, Islam is only good- the entire life of Mohammed was given about a page). There is an almost pathological rejection of facts. I heard the right wing radio hosts rail about the Universities being full of leftists and being totally intolerant of competing ideas, and I thought they were grossly exagerating. After reading these books, I can only conclude they were restrained in their criticism.

352 pages of fact after fact without information. You might get the "when" and "what" of France - if even that. But no way will you know "why" or "how" or even care when you're done with this book. I'd burn it but I have to read it for a class.