France

by Neal, Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780781808729
• ISBN10: 0781808723
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books

Summary

This volume outlines French history from prehistoric times to the present. Among the diverse themes discussed are the relations of France with its neighbours, the ever-present tension between national unity and regional autonomy, the role of the Church, and developments in public works and education.

Table of Contents

Introduction: French Histories	1	(10)
Gaul: From Caves to Villas	11	(24)
Prehistory	11	(2)
Early Gaul	13	(2)
Gauls and Greeks	15	(4)
Roman Gaul	19	(16)
A Country under Construction	21	(6)
Everyday Life in Gaul	27	(2)
Gallic Religion and Rites	29	(3)
The End of Roman Gaul	32	(3)
The Middle Ages through the Thirteenth Century	35	(38)
Overview: From Legends to Reality (and Back)	35	(5)
The Early Middle Ages (500-1000 A.D.)	40	(8)
Charlemagne	44	(4)
Life Under the Feudal System (900-1300)	48	(20)
Peasants: Slaves and Serfs	50	(1)
Urban Development	51	(3)
Transportation	54	(2)
The Church: Monasticism	56	(6)
Twelfth-Century Royalty: The Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)	62	(6)
The Last of the Capetians (1179-1223)	68	(5)
From War to Rebirth: The Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries	73	(30)
Hard Times: The Fourteenth Century	73	(7)
New Perceptions: The Fifteenth Century	80	(8)
Joan of Arc: Personal Piety	83	(2)
Humanism: Secular Piety	85	(3)
Tolerance and Cruelty: The Schizophrenic Sixteenth Century	88	(15)
French Renaissance Kings	90	(8)
``Of Moderation'': Michel de Montaigne (1534-1592) as a Case Study	98	(5)
Classicism and Enlightenment: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries	103	(38)
Overview: The Triumph and Defeat of Absolutism	103	(3)
The Seventeenth Century	106	(15)
Louis XIII and Richelieu	106	(3)
Louis XIV and the ``Fronde''	109	(2)
Great Men and Great Projects under Louis XIV	111	(5)
Domestic and International Relations	116	(1)
French Literature in the Seventeenth Century	117	(4)
The Eighteenth Century	121	(16)
The Enlightenment	121	(2)
Voltaire (1694-1778)	123	(5)
Louis XV and Louis XVI	128	(2)
The French Revolution	130	(7)
The Napoleonic Wars (1795-1815)	137	(4)
Change, Change, and More Change: The Nineteenth Century	141	(24)
Romanticism	141	(1)
The Nineteenth Century as Lived by Victor Hugo (1802-1885)	142	(4)
From Romanticism to Realism	146	(1)
The Industrial Revolution	147	(3)
Social Unrest: From Monarchy to Republic to Empire	150	(2)
The Commune and the Dreyfus Affair	152	(6)
``Peasants into Frenchmen''	158	(7)
Roads and Railroads	159	(2)
Teaching French to the French	161	(4)
War and Peace: The Twentieth Century	165	(38)
Overview	165	(7)
The Vicious Cycle: Three Wars and Their Effects	172	(10)
From 1870 to the First World War	172	(6)
World War II and the Occupation	178	(4)
French Literature	182	(2)
The End of French Colonialism	184	(2)
The Events of May 1968	186	(2)
Two French Statesmen	188	(10)
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)	188	(5)
Francois Mitterand (1916-1996)	193	(5)
Immigration and Social Tension	198	(3)
Education	201	(2)
Epilogue	203