Mission to Civilize: The French Way

Multiculturalism nowadays simultaneously cries up the virtues of individual cultures (except American culture) and forbids anyone to critically analyze the character of cultures (except American culture). It's a wonder that anything worthwhile about nations and their people ever gets written anymore.So the existence of this overlooked gem is a boon to anyone unraveling the Gordian complexities of French national character. Rosenblum takes us through history and around the globe, from Gaul to the mid-Eighties, and from Paris to La France Profonde to her old colonies-turned-proteges to France's furthest island outposts. With delightfully wry turns of phrase-English and French-he admires and skewers the genuine greatness and the overbearing pomposity of the French. (Of particular current interest are the doings of the then-Foreign Minister: Jacques Chirac.) He interviewed seemingly hundreds of people, relates many amusing and thought-provoking anecdotes, and generalizes aptly and fairly. Here are a few excerpts:"A string of crumbling French crusader forts rises from high ground across the Levant. They protect nothing and represent little power, but they are still there, after eight centuries. Like France. In North Africa, the French loom large, balanced precariously at center stage. But in the Middle East, they are nowhere and everywhere, moving within a hall of mirrors that only the architects of Versailles could have fashioned.""The oldest [colonial] buildings show graceful, almost delicate facades; but gates are high, carved doors are solid as iron, stone walls are massive. They were designed to stay cool under the sun, remind civil servants of home, impress the locals, and withstand the odd volley of paving stones should things turn nasty. Not surprisingly, the cathedral and the university were built to last. The British, in their outposts, leaned toward wood-framebuildings and corrugated tin, as if they did not want the overhead to cut into profits. There were, in essence, camping out. Not the French."