Bloomsbury Place and Locality in Modern France

Place and Locality in Modern France is an edited collection that successfully analyses the significance and changing constructions of local place in modern France. Drawing on the expertise of a range of scholars from around the world, this book is a timely overview of the cross-disciplinary thinking that is currently taking place over a central issue in French history. The book investigates the politics of administrative reform, regionalism and projects of decentralization. It looks at the role of commerce in engendering narratives and experience of local place, explores the importance of ethnic, class and gender distinctions, and considers the generation and transmission of knowledge about local place and culture through academia, civic heritage and popular memory. In short, this text provides a sweeping account of the concept of the local' in French history in a way that will effectively bridge the divide between micro- and macro-history for those interested in ideas of locality and culture in modern French and European history. Review The strength of the collection is the ways in which the articles represent new directions in the long tradition of French historiography on the role of the regional ... The collection does this especially well in defining themes such as economic change, reinvention of tradition, the redefinition of local spaces and places, and the significance of France’s overseas empire. ― H-France Review Published On: 2016-08-04 About the Author Philip Whalen is Professor of History at Coastal Carolina University, USA. Patrick Young is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, USA.