La gran matanza de gatos y otros episodios en la historia de la cultura francesa

from TheBentley

Honestly, as a scholar and a University instructor, I used to believe that academic "disciplines" had become way too rigid. After reading this book, I now believe that scholars should not start blurring the disciplinary lines until they fully understand what has already been done in disciplines o...

from wandering_star

The subtitle is 'and other episodes in French cultural history' and the best way to describe it is a book of essays, each one focusing on a detail of eighteenth-century France and using that detail very cleverly to try and illustrate wider points about the France of that time. So the first is abo...

from kant1066

Most history of the early modern period written more than a generation ago was what Robert Darnton identifies as "top-down" history: it is the history of royalty, nobles, and the intellectual elites whose ideas largely defined the times. But this contribution, along with Natalie Zemon Davis' "The...

from baswood

"We constantly need to be shaken out of a false sense of familiarity with the past, to be administered doses of cultural shock." Darnton says that to really appreciate documents and literature from the past we should try and place ourselves in the minds of the people of the time. We should try an...

from ex_ottoyuhr

An analysis of French culture in the 18th century, with embarrassingly funny introductory stories about subjects like massacring cats. Basically, you know from the title whether you'll like this book and find it interesting; I'm one of those who did.