France rarely receives good press. Criticized for its haughtiness and breathtaking hypocrisy, France exists, so to speak, in a world of its own. Much of the abuse stems from a lack of understanding, says Kedward, an authority on France during WWII (In Search of the Maquis
). He sets out to explain that "elusive, evocative quality" which is Frenchness. This book is not an easy read, but it's an amply rewarding one. The Revolution is alive and well in France, Kedward says, and every decision, every policy, is judged according to its adherence to enlightened republican principles. Conventional political distinctions between right and left are tangential to the ongoing struggle between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries. Just as abortion and gun-rights politics in America are utterly bewildering to the French, Americans fail to appreciate how the seemingly minor issue of Muslim head scarves in state schools can create an existential crisis of national identity. France, in other words, is less a country than an ideology—and a troubled one at that. Kedward's book may be the best tonic for Franco-American relations since the Statue of Liberty. 33 b&w photos, 5 maps. (Jan.)
