The Course of French History

This book is a wonderful introduction to french history. It is not very detailed, but a great overview. It has helped me decide what I really want to study with regards to french history. I now will purchase books that are specific to what I really want to know.

It's very difficult to find a good overview of French history in one volume. Surveys by definition tend to breeze across topics in order to cover the span of history in 350 or so pages. This one does the same and, as another reviewed has said, it's not the most interesting read. That said, I haven't found a better survey of French history. Cobban's three short volumes are very readable, but they total nearly 700 pages. Price's "Concise..." history is dry as a bone. If you're seriously interested in French history, start with Ladurie's The Ancien Regime. It's beautifully written but very detailed, so it's only for the bravely interested!

As a confirmed Francophile, I have several histories about France, but have always been on the lookout for a comprehensive balanced French view. Pierre Goubert is well-known in France, yet this doesn't read like an academic history. It is a flowing description from the post-Charlemagne era to the present. In almost every period, there have been things I either didn't know, or didn't really understood until now. Goubert makes excellent balanced analyses of events with good/bad sides. Several of Goubert's assessments have confirmed my disagreements with traditional French views, among them the supposed glory of Louis XIV for France, and the supposed triumph of the French Revolution for France.

This history will remain a reference after the flowing reading. It is comprehensive. It introduces periods with summary sweeps, then returns to events in detail. It can be both reminder and reference.

This is a big, expensive book. I tried the free sample because the book is available on paper and for Kindle. I was convinced by the sample that the book would be worth the purchase. I have been delighted to find it much better than merely worth the purchase. My lookout has at last succeeded.

I was looking for a survey of French history and willing to accept that coverage of many important events would be superficial. What I wasn't expecting was a poor effort that reads like a college term paper.

I knew it would be dicey when the back cover touted the book as tracing the "social and econimic" evolution of France. What?

The writing lacks focus and it is hard to understand what the writer meant (or perhaps he was just in term paper mode). After a sentence about the ability of the feudal lord to call on vassals to expand the army for 40 days, the next sentence is "But nothing more impressive than a kind of control of the loyalty of those who had taken an oath to the king resulted from twenty such lackluster expeditions." What does that even mean?

How about "Historians know little about the first four Capetians, yet their combined reigns cover more than a century."? Do they know when each became king, what they did, what were the main issues they dealt with? The author talks about where (but not when) each king established his court, but little else.

The author is also given to peripheral comments (witticisms?) that add nothing to the text.

The back cover (where "econimical" is mentioned) quotes L'Express as saying that this is a "Lively, well-written, satirical and profound" work. I'm not looking for satire in history,. The blurb from The Economist credits the author with "going for the jugular." Again, not what I want.

When I was traveling to Italy, I read "In Pursuit of Italy" by David Gilmour which managed to take me from the Romans to current times and left me feeling that I'd learned something. For Russian history, I read "Russia Under the Old Regime" by Richard Pipes. A bit dry, but thorough, and it covered the earliest times until just before 1917. "The Course of French History" is not in the same league as either of those books.

I'm sorry I bought it and will be sending it back. Does anyone have a suggestion to a decent survey of French history?

Bored me I need photos

For my daughter. Very good.

Wonderful and to the point...

Covers the bases, but that's about it. A rather tired recitation of names and dates, with a minimum of analysis or commentary. If your looking for the broad strokes, they're here, but if you want to understand the deeper currents and developments (or, if you just want a good story) you should look elsewhere.

Having moved to France a few years ago we have been very surprised by the depth of knowledge of English history displayed by the french! It far outweighed our own knowledge of french history. So I thought that I should remedy that. Hstory was not a favourite subject of mine when at school and I thought that I would be looking for a book on a subject that I would not enjoy but I came across this book. One can only say that it is packed with information but written in such a way that it is like reading a good novel. A very easy and informative read and I have learnt much english history from this book, particularly with respect to the battles between the French and Englsh! I am very pleased with this purchase.

It's very dry and the language used is rather pompous.

I bought this as a present for my aunt.

It arrived quickly and was well packaged.

She has found it very interesting and informative.

There are plenty of dull books - reliable, clear, scholarly, but in the end rather dull - on French history. This one however stands out from the crowd. There's no lack of plain basic narrative and analysis here, but the author has the gift of leavening it with variety and wit, yet without being in any way facile or flashy. I have looked and looked for a straightforward narrative of French history, and found plenty that seem sound, but none, before this one, which served up the sound material in a lively (and occasionally diverting) style. If you want a straightforward history of France which will also keep you engaged as a general reader, this is the one to go for.