Place and Locality in Modern France
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 provides a timely overview of the cross-disciplinary thinking that is currently taking place over a central issue in French history.
The contributed chapters address a range of subjects that include:
the politics of administrative reform, decentralization, regionalism and local advocacy;
the role of commerce in engendering narratives and experience of local place;
the importance of ethnic, class, gender and race distinctions in shaping local connection and identity;
the generation and transmission of knowledge about local place and culture through academia, civic heritage and popular memory.
As a reconsideration of the 'local' in French history,
bridges the divide between micro- and macro-history for all those interested in ideas of locality and culture in modern French and European history.