Monday, January 08, 2007

UNDERSTANDING THE FRENCH

The French have been stereotyped in many ways by the right in America and especially since the Iraq invasion cutting jokes about the French have circulated, especially on the internet. For example: AP and UPI reported that the French Government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "run" to "hide." The only two higher levels in France are "surrender" and "collaborate."

But the problem is that this kind of humor does not really help us understand the French. Rod Kedward's book France and the French: La Vie en Bleu since 1900 attempts to focus on finding or defining "Frenchness." There is a good review of it at H-France. I am not sure the study will resolve "what makes France tick," but it does get into the complex historical, social, and cultural issues of the last century or two.

1 comment:

AG said...

Interesting.