frenchhistory

Phoenix in Flight

The History of the Franks | Gregory of Tours

All about the turbulent Merovingian dynasty

GinaKButler

Napoleon: A Life | Andrew Roberts

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Finally finished my Q1 #chunksterchallenge2025 this morning. I admit that I didn‘t love this one as much as some other chunky biographies that I‘ve read. It‘s incredibly detailed, I only wish that the maps were just as detailed…it was difficult to imagine some of the battles. I‘m glad that I picked this one up…and the spine is beautiful on my shelves! Thanks for hosting, @Amiable #bookspinbingo

TheBookHippie I have this one. Haven‘t read it yet and I love your shelf! So many pretties. 1mo

Amiable It does like good nestled into that row of chunksters! 1mo

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vlwelser

Paris in Ruins: Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism | Sebastian Smee

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This is basically a history about French chaos and Berthe Morisot with a bit of Manet. She's an icon and I'm glad I took a break from (paused) my fantasy trend to give her some of my headspace.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 2mo

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Dilara

Atlas de la r�volution fran�aise: circulation des hommes et des id�es, 1770-1804 | Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, Silvia Marzagalli

Map of revolutions, mutinies and uprisings across the Americas, the Near-East and Europe at the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th. I wish it was better taught at school.

Bookwomble It seems European colonial and revolutionary history is poorly taught in the West. Same issue in the UK when I was at school. 2mo

Dilara @Bookwomble Yes! I went to school in France in the 80s/90s. The 1789 French Revolution in mainland France was taught in reasonable detail, but subsequent revolutions, & anything happening in overseas territories or in other countries were glossed over or ignored, except for The Magna Carta, The Glorious Revolution & the American Revolutionary War as part of our citizenship class, & the 1917 Russian Rev as part of the WWI topic in history class. 2mo

Dilara Curious about the curriculum in other countries, if anyone would like to tell us about it 😁 2mo

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Bookwomble There were two streams of history taught in English high schools in the '70s: one was social and economic history, which I didn't do but which seemed to focus on the industrial revolution without really mentioning colonialism. I did world history, which included history of medicine, the American West, which did touch on the Native American genocide, but not in detail, and something about Chiang Kai-shek about which I recall only his name. 2mo

Bookwomble Nothing that challenged the establishment of the Grand Idea of the British Empire, long defunct as it already was. 2mo

Dilara @Bookwomble And we'd think things would have moved on since the 70s, but imperialism and colonialism are still taboo subjects in some quarters. 2mo

kspenmoll Love maps! 2mo

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goddan

The Civil War in France: the Paris Commune | Karl Marx

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Great analysis of the overthrow of bourgeois society by the people and its eventual suppression by the collusion of Prussia and the French government.

Dilara

Atlas de la r�volution fran�aise: circulation des hommes et des id�es, 1770-1804 | Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, Silvia Marzagalli

This map showing the 18th-century contraband route into France used for banned books doesn't feel as incredible today as it did last year. Force to US readers. Apparently, even romance books are in P 2025's crosshairs?!

Dilara To explain the map: “livre“ means “book“, but is also the name of the pre-French Revolution currency. So, a book cost 1.3 livre tournois (Tours pound) straight out of the Swiss printer's, went through various places in the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium), then ended up at a wholesaler in Caen (Normandy, France), where it was sold for 5 pounds to itinerant booksellers, who then sold it clandestinely for 7 to 9 pounds to the final customer 😱 3mo

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Dilara

A People's History of the French Revolution | Eric Hazan

Today is the anniversary of the first abolition of slavery in France, unanimously declared on the 4th of February 1794 (16 pluviôse an II) by the Convention during the French Revolution, before being rescinded a few years later by Napoléon. I would have liked more details to be included in the tagged book, but Eric Hazan makes it clear that the abolition was imposed by Haitian slaves rather than gifted magnanimously from mainland France, so👍

Dilara Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, representative for Haiti in the French Convention, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. As a free black man, he was able to be elected as a representative for Haiti in 1793, and he participated in writing the abolition decree in 1794. (edited) 3mo

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GinaKButler

Napoleon: A Life | Andrew Roberts

#chunksterchallenge2025 check in: I‘m 315 pages in. I‘m enjoying reading this…he‘s surprisingly funny in his letters. I do wish the maps (battlefields) were labeled more clearly.

@Amiable

Amiable Ooh, I have this one, too. Glad to hear you are liking it. 3mo

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