The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (Cambridge Illustrated Histories)

Rating:
Summary: Pointless!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable, highly readable single volume history
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Look No Further!
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: Pathetic Beyond belief
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Buyer beware
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Pointless!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Just plain horrible
Review: This is the only book I have ever returned. Unreadable.