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A review by samporter
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France, But Not the French by Jean Nadeau, Julie Barlow
3.0
Recently, I spent six weeks holidaying in France. Three of those weeks I spent working on a farm in a remote commune in the south of the country. One of my hosts, a British woman now living in France, gave me this book to read after we shared our observations and questions about the French and their daily life.
Whilst the French are obviously still a part of Western culture and politics, there are no doubt some differences as to how the French view life and the world. Co-authors and partners, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow (from French Canada and the USA respectively), set out to explain "why the French are the way they are" based on their two years living in Paris in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Are two years abroad enough to qualify their observations? Personally, I don't think so. The first section is a series of embarrassing generalisations based on the authors' loosely-connected observations about French life. There is very much a tone of 'them/the weird French' and 'us/the normal North Americans.' At this point, I was worrying about how I might find the stamina to finish this book.
The second section is a lot better as the authors draw on facts and statistics to support their writing. I found the chapters on France's role in WWII and the Algerian war extremely insightful and explained in a palatable manner. Some of the later chapters in section two were interesting but dense in subject matter. Nadeau and Barlow did a good job to explain tedious structures of French Social Security and French government but, admittedly, I did zone out and have to re-read sections many times. This isn't necessarily the fault of the authors, just an observation and warning for those who are considering reading this.
The third and final section focussed on France's relationship with the world and, more specifically, within Europe. I really enjoyed this section as it dealt with topics such as federation/sovereignty, the European Union and the future of France/the EU. I was especially impressed with the discourse about race and racism (both cultural and structural) that occur in France. The authors based these discussions on facts and used their personal anecdotes to support the evidence rather than the other way round (as they seemed to do in Section One).
Overall, I would not recommend this book. It is extremely niche and was published in 2002 so a lot of the information is now outdated. The reason I continued (and often struggled) with this book was that it allowed me to access deeper discussions with French friends and locals on my travels. I could ask them whether they think the President wields too much power, why the servers in French bakeries have no sense of urgency when it’s busy and what their opinions are on the horrific Algerian War of the 60s.
If you want to known more about the culture, language, economics, history, politics and everyday life in France, read a book that has been published more recently and is not by these authors.
Whilst the French are obviously still a part of Western culture and politics, there are no doubt some differences as to how the French view life and the world. Co-authors and partners, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow (from French Canada and the USA respectively), set out to explain "why the French are the way they are" based on their two years living in Paris in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Are two years abroad enough to qualify their observations? Personally, I don't think so. The first section is a series of embarrassing generalisations based on the authors' loosely-connected observations about French life. There is very much a tone of 'them/the weird French' and 'us/the normal North Americans.' At this point, I was worrying about how I might find the stamina to finish this book.
The second section is a lot better as the authors draw on facts and statistics to support their writing. I found the chapters on France's role in WWII and the Algerian war extremely insightful and explained in a palatable manner. Some of the later chapters in section two were interesting but dense in subject matter. Nadeau and Barlow did a good job to explain tedious structures of French Social Security and French government but, admittedly, I did zone out and have to re-read sections many times. This isn't necessarily the fault of the authors, just an observation and warning for those who are considering reading this.
The third and final section focussed on France's relationship with the world and, more specifically, within Europe. I really enjoyed this section as it dealt with topics such as federation/sovereignty, the European Union and the future of France/the EU. I was especially impressed with the discourse about race and racism (both cultural and structural) that occur in France. The authors based these discussions on facts and used their personal anecdotes to support the evidence rather than the other way round (as they seemed to do in Section One).
Overall, I would not recommend this book. It is extremely niche and was published in 2002 so a lot of the information is now outdated. The reason I continued (and often struggled) with this book was that it allowed me to access deeper discussions with French friends and locals on my travels. I could ask them whether they think the President wields too much power, why the servers in French bakeries have no sense of urgency when it’s busy and what their opinions are on the horrific Algerian War of the 60s.
If you want to known more about the culture, language, economics, history, politics and everyday life in France, read a book that has been published more recently and is not by these authors.