Rethinking France: Les Lieux de mémoire, Volume 4: Histories and Memories (Volume 4) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226591352 ISBN 13: 9780226591353

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2010

Synopsis

The fourth and final volume in Pierre Nora’s monumental series documenting the history and culture of France takes a self-reflective turn. The eleven essays collected here consider the texts and places that make up the collective memory of the history of France, a country whose people are extraordinarily self-conscious of history and their place in it. Distinguished contributors look at the medieval Grands chroniques de France and the monasteries and chancelleries that produced them, the establishment of Versailles as a historical museum, and Pierre Larousse’s Grand dictionnaire, an important touchstone of cultural memory. Other essays range in topic from the creation of the National Archives, a curiously organized catacomb of manuscripts, to Annales, a publication begun in 1929 that profoundly revitalized the study of history in France. Taken together these richly detailed essays fully explore the multifaceted ways France has institutionalized its history and are, along with the rest of Les Lieux de mémoire, a crucial part of that process.

About this title

About the Author:

Pierre Nora is editorial director at Éditions Gallimard. Since 1977, he has been directeur d’études at the École des hautes études en science sociales. He has directed the editorial work on Les Lieux de mémoire since 1984. David P. Jordan is the LAS Distinguished Professor of French History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of Transforming Paris and The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre.

Review:

"Like its illustrious predecessors . . . this volume exhibits a grandeur of vision." (Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0226591352
• ISBN 13: 9780226591353
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Nora Pierre, Jordan David P.