The Horizon Concise History of France

by Marshall B. Davidson

Reproductions of art works and descriptive text provide an illustrated study of French life throughout the ages

Genres: Nonfiction

219 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

Marshall Bowman Davidson

Reviews

[Glen]

A nice history, short, to the point, and pretty comprehensive for such a brief survey. It was published in 1971 so obviously nothing of note in the last half century or so is covered herein, and it was finished close enough to the death of de Gaulle that the author did not feel there was enough perspective to assess his legacy. The biggest gaps I noted were in the cataloguing of France's artistic and literary luminaries--and there are many--de Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus, and Genet did not so much as receive a mention, which is appalling given that Camus received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and Sartre refused it in 1964. Perhaps the best feature of the book, apart from its brevity, is that it has a liberal amount of photographs and other visual treats scattered throughout.

[Tammy Schilling]

Excellent, fast read of the history of France. No, it's not exhaustive, it doesn't claim to be. It claims to be fast and understandable and succeeds on both scores. The only downside is that, being published in 1971, it doesn't cover very recent history (which is really current events, not history). Highly recommended. I'm impressed enough that I will keep a look out for the other books in the series.

[Bret]

Very nice outline of French history, from the stone age to the 1970s, when the edition I read was published. At little over 200 pages, it can't be expected to go into great detail about any particular topic, which the author mentions several times, but it's a very accessible and useful overview.

I particularly enjoyed the well-chosen photos and illustrations included several pages apart throughout.

[Erin]

a very good overview of French history. shame it ends at 1960.

[Jen]

Very informative, but also out dated and biased at times.