Customer Reviews

Themes in French Culture: A Preface to a Study of French Community (Margaret Mead: the Study of Contemporary Western Cultures (Paper))

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I just stumbled on this book looking for resources on French culture that went beyond literature, wine and cheese for my students. What a revelation this was! Who knew that Margaret Mead ever wrote anything on France! This is an amazingly perceptive work--still vital and astonishing after 50 years. The astonishing part is that it centers on the structure of the French family, giving a totally different picture of French culture than most Americans ever encounter. As one who has lived with a family in a French village, I found myself continually smiling and nodding in agreement. This book should be read by every student studying French civlization, and everyone contemplating living in that country. I am assigning it to my students, and will give copies as presents this Christmas. Katherine Anderson-Levitt in her introduction puts the entire work in perspective for a contemporary audience, including translations of reviews from French sociologists when the book first came out. This belongs on the bookshelf of every Francophile, and everyone who cares about the anthropology of contemporary societies.