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v. 2 ISBN 9780226591339
Description
How do we visualize a state or a nation? Some might imagine territory - the borders that divide countries, that mark the space where power is exercised and history evolves. Others might picture natural aspects like mountains, rivers, and landscapes that make their own country distinct. For Pierre Nora, these are historical and geographical conceptions of "space." And, in the case of the French, these conceptions are not separate but instead uniquely linked. They are key to understanding French national identity. In "Space", the second volume in the University of Chicago Press's translation of Nora's ambitious "Les Lieux de memoire", a group of France's leading historians and cultural commentators call attention to the meaning of space for the French and the firm connection between the nation's history and its geography. The essays gathered here cover the most essential approaches to French space: external and internal boundaries, the base unit of local space, and the mental construction that gives a general idea of the concept of landscape. The analyses focus on three aspects of natural boundaries: the forest, the north and the south, and the coastline.
Each region of France, they show, is a space of memory that is the fruit of all the knowledge that gives it shape: statistical, cartographical, geological, and historical. A crucial piece in Nora's profound historical project on the way the French understand themselves, this volume will be appreciated by any critical thinker with an interest in French history, politics, culture, or philosophy.
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v. 3 ISBN 9780226591346
Description
The third volume of Pierre Nora's monumental work documenting the history and culture of France turns to French manners, mores, and society. While previous volumes focused on specific historical events, people, and institutions within France, the essays in "Legacies" are concerned with the kinds of things that make up the heart of French culture: conversation, cafes, songs, wine, gallantry, and places imbued with national symbolism such as Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur cathedrals. Linking these diverse topics together is the idea of patrimony - a term used by the French to designate the collective culture of the country or its national heritage - a concept that has undergone radical changes beginning with the Revolution and corresponding to other dramatic ruptures throughout France's history. As a whole, these twelve essays by leading French historians add up to an illuminating and well-rounded portrait of those cherished traditions that together form the basic foundation for the distinctive culture of the French.
by "Nielsen BookData"