John Ardagh (1928–2008)

Living in North America, journalistic sources dealing with France are quite skimpy. So a full length book is a welcome source that satisfies my hunger for this knowledge.
I see that he did further books in about the 1990s and into the new century. I will pursue these as well. To most non-French people, such as myself, who have read lots of Hugo, Balzac, Dumas and even some 20th century authors like Gide, Sartre, Proust and Foucault, knowledge of the mid 19th century and beyond is quite sparse. So this really fills the gap.
For sure there is no shortage of novels that take up where the novelists listed above leave off. I will have to pursue those as well. But in the meantime, this book, and also Ardagh's book about the 1970s, are very welcome additions to my library. He has stayed away from endless statistics and told a story that is very interesting.… (mais)