Category Archives: French History

Ritual and Violence

Posted on February 25, 2012 by briansandberg

The French Wars of Religion are featured in a new special issue of Past & Present, which reexamines Natalie Zemon Davis’s concept of “rites of violence” 40 years after her landmark article. The issue is entitled “Ritual and Violence: Natalie … Continue reading →

Posted in European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, History of Violence, Religious Violence, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

Napoleonland

Posted on February 18, 2012 by briansandberg

Ready for a Napoleonic theme park?  Here comes Napoleonland…. Yves Jago, a French politician in the Parti Radical, is proposing a project to build a historical theme park to celebrate the life and legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte.  The theme park … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, French History, French Revolution and Napoleon, History in the Media, War, Culture, and Society | 1 Comment

Playing Politics with History

Posted on January 30, 2012 by briansandberg

Politicians frequently use historical references and analogies to support their political positions and policy programs. Sometimes legislative bodies act to interpret historical events, attempting to reshape the historical memory of controversial periods of the past. Recently, French politicians have been … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, French History, History in the Media, Human Rights, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Movement for De-Baptism in France

Posted on January 29, 2012 by briansandberg

A movement promoting de-baptism is growing in France, challenging the authority of the Catholic Church and presenting quandaries for historians who use baptismal records as sources. A French man named René LeBouvier has sued the Catholic Church in order to … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, European Union, European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, Human Rights, Religious Violence | Leave a comment

Laurent Dubois on the History of Haiti

Posted on January 14, 2012 by briansandberg

As Haitians continues to struggle with rebuilding following the disastrous 2010 earthquake, historians are grappling with explaining the historical roots of Haiti’s current predicament. Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University, has written several books on Haiti and … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, French History, French Revolution and Napoleon, Globalization, Human Rights | Leave a comment

France Loses AAA Credit Rating

Posted on January 14, 2012 by briansandberg

France has lost its AAA credit rating as Standard & Poor’s cut its rating a notch to AA+. Eleanor Beardsley of NPR reports that “Standard & Poor’s downgraded the sovereign debt of France, Italy, Spain and six other European countries … Continue reading →

Posted in European Union, French History, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Anti-French Attitudes and American Politics

Posted on January 13, 2012 by briansandberg

French historians and literary scholars are all too aware of the anti-French attitudes in American society.  Anti-French references have long been rife in American popular culture, but took on new virulence in the wake of Franco-German opposition to the Bush … Continue reading →

Posted in Comparative Revolutions, French History, History in the Media, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Contested Figure of Jeanne d’Arc

Posted on January 9, 2012 by briansandberg

The image and historical legacy of Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) continues to be highly contested in France.  The 2012 Presidential Election in France is now fueling a new round of debates about the figure of Jeanne d’Arc and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Conflict, French History, Gender and Warfare, Political Culture, Religious Violence, Women and Gender History | Leave a comment

Creating Communities through Coercion

Posted on December 28, 2011 by briansandberg

I will be chairing a session on “Creating Communities through Coercion in Seventeenth-Century France” at the American Historical Association (AHA) in Chicago in early January 2012. AHA Session 183 Saturday, January 7, 2012: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM Iowa Room (Chicago Marriott … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern Europe, European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, Religious Violence, Warfare in the Early Modern World | 3 Comments

A Growing Francophonie

Posted on December 9, 2011 by briansandberg

Francophonie is apparently growing rapidly. Demographic studies of French-speaking populations suggest that French language use is increasing worldwide.  Francophonie is normally defined as the group of nations that have adopted French as an official language—including France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Haiti, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education Policy, French History, Globalization, Humanities Education | Leave a comment