France on the World Stage


Book Description

This book examines the ways in which France's relations with the international community have evolved in a period of accelerating globalization. It considers the role of the nation state, and its capacity for political initiative, examining French strategies to reinforce French influence on the world stage.




A Bite-Sized History of France


Book Description

A "delicious" (Dorie Greenspan), "genial" (Kirkus Reviews), "very cool book about the intersections of food and history" (Michael Pollan)—as featured in the New York Times "The complex political, historical, religious and social factors that shaped some of [France's] . . . most iconic dishes and culinary products are explored in a way that will make you rethink every sprinkling of fleur de sel." —The New York Times Book Review Acclaimed upon its hardcover publication as a "culinary treat for Francophiles" (Publishers Weekly), A Bite-Sized History of France is a thoroughly original book that explores the facts and legends of the most popular French foods and wines. Traversing the cuisines of France's most famous cities as well as its underexplored regions, the book is enriched by the "authors' friendly accessibility that makes these stories so memorable" (The New York Times Book Review). This innovative social history also explores the impact of war and imperialism, the age-old tension between tradition and innovation, and the enduring use of food to prop up social and political identities. The origins of the most legendary French foods and wines—from Roquefort and cognac to croissants and Calvados, from absinthe and oysters to Camembert and champagne—also reveal the social and political trends that propelled France's rise upon the world stage. As told by a Franco-American couple (Stéphane is a cheesemonger, Jeni is an academic) this is an "impressive book that intertwines stories of gastronomy, culture, war, and revolution. . . . It's a roller coaster ride, and when you're done you'll wish you could come back for more" (The Christian Science Monitor).




How the World Became a Stage


Book Description

What is special, distinct, modern about modernity? In How the World Became a Stage, William Egginton argues that the experience of modernity is fundamentally spatial rather than subjective and proposes replacing the vocabulary of subjectivity with the concepts of presence and theatricality. Following a Heideggerian injunctive to search for the roots of epochal change not in philosophies so much as in basic skills and practices, he describes the spatiality of modernity on the basis of a close historical analysis of the practices of spectacle from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, paying particular attention to stage practices in France and Spain. He recounts how the space in which the world is disclosed changed from the full, magically charged space of presence to the empty, fungible, and theatrical space of the stage.




Occupying the Stage


Book Description

Occupying the Stage: the Theater of May '68 tells the story of student and worker uprisings in France through the lens of theater history, and the story of French theater through the lens of May '68. Based on detailed archival research and original translations, close readings of plays and historical documents, and a rigorous assessment of avant-garde theater history and theory, Occupying the Stage proposes that the French theater of 1959–71 forms a standalone paradigm called "The Theater of May '68." The book shows how French theater artists during this period used a strategy of occupation-occupying buildings, streets, language, words, traditions, and artistic processes-as their central tactic of protest and transformation. It further proposes that the Theater of May '68 has left imprints on contemporary artists and activists, and that this theater offers a scaffolding on which to build a meaningful analysis of contemporary protest and performance in France, North America, and beyond. At the book's heart is an inquiry into how artists of the period used theater as a way to engage in political work and, concurrently, questioned and overhauled traditional theater practices so their art would better reflect the way they wanted the world to be. Occupying the Stage embraces the utopic vision of May '68 while probing the period's many contradictions. It thus affirms the vital role theater can play in the ongoing work of social change.




Kehinde Wiley


Book Description

Biography; exhibs.; awards; collections.




Kehinde Wiley


Book Description

Portraits of young African American St. Louis men and women whose poses are derived from paintings (and, in one case, sculpture) in the St. Louis Art Museum's collection.




Ireland on the World Stage


Book Description

For 2nd and 3rd year courses in Irish Politics, European Politics, or Comparative Politics, International Relations or Economic Development. This book provides an up-to-date analysis of Ireland's place on the world stage, exploring its international relations, evolving economic power, changing relationship with the EU, its political role in the world and its changing relationship with England and Northern Ireland. The book traces Ireland's development from a rural and isolated country to one that has emerged as an influential player on the international stage. It looks at the continuing difficulties with the North, Ireland's role of prominence in Europe and the way in which it has benefited from economic globalisation.




Between Republic and Market


Book Description

The rise of neo-liberal globalisation has posed major challenges for all European countries, identifying itself as the key political tension of the coming era. Yet, it is in France that globalisation has produced the deepest tensions, and it is here that it has generated its greatest political resistance. The author pursues two separate lines of enquiry. First, she considers the influence of French political tradition and an enduring legacy of republicanism in shaping contemporary opposition. If globalisation poses a greater ideological threat in France than elsewhere, this is because it comes into conflict with the foundational values and symbols of the FrenchRepublic. Secondly, she examines contemporary French opposition as a site for political and ideological renewal. Many critics now agree that it is within this emergent movement, rather than within traditional parties, that new forms of political practice and ideology are being invented.




The Media In Contemporary France


Book Description

This is an up-to-date account of the news media of press, radio, television and the internet in one of the major media states of the European Union.




Twilight of the Elites


Book Description

A passionate account of how the gulf between France’s metropolitan elites and its working classes are tearing the country apart Christophe Guilluy, a French geographer, makes the case that France has become an “American society”—one that is both increasingly multicultural and increasingly unequal. The divide between the global economy’s winners and losers in today’s France has replaced the old left-right split, leaving many on “the periphery.” As Guilluy shows, there is no unified French economy, and those cut off from the country’s new economic citadels suffer disproportionately on both economic and social fronts. In Guilluy’s analysis, the lip service paid to the idea of an “open society” in France is a smoke screen meant to hide the emergence of a closed society, walled off for the benefit of the upper classes. The ruling classes in France are reaching a dangerous stage, he argues; without the stability of a growing economy, the hope for those excluded from growth is extinguished, undermining the legitimacy of a multicultural nation.