A History of French Passions 1848-1945: Volume I: Ambition, Love, and Politics

This is a history of the French, which attempts to explain their idiosyncrasies, enthusiasms, and prejudices. It goes beyond a mere recital of events to investigate the attitudes and behavior over an unusually wide range of activities. The first part scrutinizes the peculiar way of thinking and of talking adopted by the French and their ambivalent feelings about foreigners. It shows what it meant to be a Breton or a Provencal, an Alsatian, or an Auvergnat. The second part analyzes French taste and the role of the artist. It enquires into the quality of life, the French view of happiness, friendship and comfort, humor, reactions to scientific progress, compromises with corruption, and superstition. This survey is a major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experiences of the French. It has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France. Contents List of Maps Acknowledgements Introduction Part I 1. The Pretensions of the Bourgeoisie 2. Doctors 3. Notaries 4. The Rich 5. Industrialists 6. Bankers 7. The Ambitions of Ordinary Men 8. Bureaucrats 9. Peasants 10. Workers Part II 11. Marriage and Morals 12. Children 13. Women Part III 14. The Place of Politics in Life 15. Kings and Aristocrats 16. The Genius in Politics 17. Republicanism 18. Bonapartism 19. The Politicians of the Third Republic 20. Opportunism 2i. Solidarism 22. Radicalism 23. Socialism Index This survey is a major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experience of the French, which has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France. Describes some of the world's most famous fires including the Ringling Brothers Circus fire in 1944, the great fire of London in 1666, and the disaster of the dirigible Hindenburg in 1936 v. 1. Ambition, love and politics. v. 2. Intellect, taste, and anxiety.