An Historical Geography Of France

In this 1994 book, Xavier de Planhol and Paul Claval, two of France's leading scholars in the field, trace the historical geography of their country from its roots in the Roman province of Gaul to the 1990s. They demonstrate how, for centuries, France was little more than an ideological concept, despite its natural physical boundaries and long territorial history. They examine the relatively late development of a more complex territorial geography, involving political, religious, cultural, agricultural and industrial unities and diversities. The conclusion reached is that only in the twentieth century had France achieved a profound territorial unity and only now are the fragmentations of the past being overwritten.

Themes in the Historical Geography of France compiles several selected themes in the historical geography of France. This book discusses the practice of historical geography in France; peopling and the origins of settlement; early urban development; and retreat of rural settlement. The regional contrasts in agrarian structure; reclamation of coastal marshland; petite culture on 1750-1850; and reclamation of wasteland during the 18th and 19th centuries are also elaborated. This compilation likewise covers the historical geography of Western France; urban growth on 1500-1900; and agricultural change and industrial development in the 18th and 19th centuries. This publication is beneficial to historians and geographers aiming to acquire knowledge of the historical geography of France.

"A witty, engaging narrative style…[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing." —New York Times Book Review A narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. A New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, Slate Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice.

This book, first published in 1983, attempts to examine the rural change in France between 1815 and 1914 with a sustained and explicit spatial approach. This volume represents a position in which space and time are meshed in an analysis of the forces underlying land-use and other changes that have contributed much to the making of the French landscape. In this book the shift from the rural economy towards the urban markets in this period is examined thoroughly, using the vast statistical record of cadastral surveys and agricultural enquiries as well as contemporary reports and agricultural journals. The detailed mapping of historical data is a major feature of the treatment. As a scholarly account of a major topic in historical geography, The Land of France 1815-1914 should appear to all students and researchers with interests in historical and rural geography and economic history and especially those specialising in European studies.

A Historical Geography of Europe provides an analytical and explanatory account of European historical geography from classical times to the modern period, including the vast changes to landscape, settlements, population, and in political and cultural structures and character that have taken place since 1500. The text takes account of the volume of relevant research and literature that has been published over the past two or three decades, in order to achieve a coverage and synthesis of this very broad range of evidence and opinion, and has tried to engage with many of the main themes and debates to give a clear indication of changing ideas and interpretations of the subject.

This book seeks to examine the complex of natural and man-made features that have influenced the course of history and have been influenced by it. It spans the period from the early sixteenth century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution in continental Europe, approximately 1500 to 1840.

It's easy to reduce France to the sum of its parts: weekend breaks amid the culture of Paris or summer holidays basking in the sunshine of the south; accounts of the Revolution -- Madame Defarge knitting beside the guillotine -- and Napoleon's battle at Waterloo (mis)remembered from school history lessons; a country famous for its intellectuals, its philosophers and writers, its fashion, food and wine. Despite this, however, the notion of 'the French' as one nation is relatively recent and -- historically speaking -- quite misleading; in order to discover the 'real' past of France, it's not only necessary to go back in time, but also to go at a slower pace than modern life generally allows: this book is the result of 14,000 miles covered by bicycle (and four years spent in the library). It is -- at last -- a book which tells the whole story. Praise for Robb's last novel, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century: ‘Funny, enterprisingly researched, and undertaken with few apparent preconceptions . . This is an excellent, amusing, decent book, which covers an enormous amount of ground in a little space’ Philp Hensher, Spectator ‘A fascinating study of a complex subject, written with humanity, sceptical intelligence and an impressive command of the sources’ Daily Telegraph ‘A fascinating mix of personal testimony and judiciously filleted history’ The Times