Kirjahaku

A provocative work that explores the evolution of emotions and personal relationships through diverse cultures and time. "An intellectually dazzling view of our past and future."--Time magazine

Politics and Anger

Sketches France's political and intellectual development and comments on social divisions and customs from the late 1840's through the Second World War.

Analyzes the Frenchman's unique national identity, attitudes towards foreigners, education, and intellectual and cultural development from the late 1840's through the 1900's.

A History of French Passions Volume 4: Taste and Corruuption

Anxiety and Hypocrisy

This survey is a major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experience of the French, which has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France.

This is a history of the French which tries to explain their idiosyncrasies, enthusiasms and prejudices. It goes beyond the recital of events to investigate their attitudes and behaviour over an unusually wide range of activities. Volume I scrutinizes the peculiar way of thinking and of talking adopted by the French, their powerful sense of national identity, their ambivalent feelings about foreigners. It shows what it meant to be a Breton or a Provencal, an Alsation or an Auvergnat. Volume II analyses French taste and the role of the artist. It enquires into the quality of life, the French view of happiness, friendship and comfort, humour, reactions to scientific progress, compromises with corruption and superstition. This major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experience of the French has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France, and now re-appears in two paperback volumes.

a constant companion' Bill Bailey'Extraordinary and beautiful...the most exciting and ambitious work of non-fiction I have read in more than a decade' The Daily TelegraphThis extraordinarily wide-ranging study looks at the dilemmas of life today and shows how they need not have arisen.

A guide to new ambitions in work, relationships and learning, by our most inspired thinker on society and community."Scintillating . . . prophetic . . . engaging" - Financial Times"A masterpiece" - The TimesWhat is worth knowing? What does it mean to be alive? Where can one find nourishment for the mind? What is the great adventure of our time? What is a wasted life? What can the poor tell the rich? What could the rich tell the poor? How many ways of committing suicide are there? How can prejudices be overcome? How else can one think about the future, apart from trying to predict it or worrying about it? Is ridicule the most effective form of non-violent protest? How does one acquire a sense of humour? What stops people feeling completely at home in their own country? How many nations can one love at the same time? Why do so many people feel unappreciated, unloved and only half alive? How else might women and men treat one another? What can replace the shortage of soul-mates? Is another kind of sexual revolution achievable? What is more interesting than becoming a leader? What is the point of working so hard? Are there more amusing ways of earning a living? What else can one do in a hotel? Theodore Zeldin is the bestselling author of Conversation and An Intimate History of Humanity. His TED talk has now been viewed 1 million times.Winner of the Salon London Transmission Prize

Do you want better conversations with your lover, your colleagues at work, your family, friends or strangers, or yourself? Conversation explains what kind of talk charmed and excited people in the past, and why we talk differently today. It explores the art and the history of conversation and how it can be the key to a happier, more interesting future. It shows how women have changed the ways lovers speak, how families avoid silence or boredom, how your work can damage or improve the way you converse, and what role there is for the tongue-tied and shy. This book will enable you to see more clearly what you want to talk about, and what conversation can do to your life.

This is a guide to France intended for the traveller who wants to get to know French people as individuals, for the negotiating businessman and for students who wishes to discover in-depth aspects of their lives. It looks at what makes up the national character of France.