Jean-Benoit Nadeau,Julie Barlow

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong

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The French…-Smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans-Work 35-hour weeks, and take seven weeks of paid holidays per year, but are still the world's fourth-biggest economic powerSo what makes the French so different?Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong is a journey into the French heart, mind and soul. Decrypting French ideas about land, privacy and language, Nadeau and Barlow weave together the threads of French society--from centralization and the Napoleonic Code to elite education and even street protests--giving us, for the first time, a complete picture of the French."e;[A] readable and insightful piece of work."e; --Montreal Mirror"e;In an era of irrational reactions to all things French, here is an eminently rational answer to the question, 'Why are the French like that?'"e; --Library Journal"e;A must-read."e; --Edmonton Journal
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476 printed pages
Publication year
2003
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Impressions

  • Assel Stambekovashared an impression6 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot
    🎯Worthwhile

    The book is profound in many ways. It is difficult to grasp one central thought after having read it so I will quote the authors: "France is not what it used to be. France has never been what it used to be, and it never will. So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts."
    Highly recommend to read it if you're interested in France and their midnset and culture.

Quotes

  • supernovahas quoted6 years ago
    This association became 25,000 members strong and coordinates dozens of similar organizations worldwide.

    Given the deleterious nature of financial markets, the Tobin Tax is probably inapplicable, but the idea of taxing financial transactions has begun to gain currency among some Western democracies anyway, notably Finland and Canada.
  • supernovahas quoted6 years ago
    Salaries are very rarely discussed in public in any context. When people do discuss them, they claim to earn less than they actually do. Although civil servants’ salaries are theoretically public, the system is so riddled with perks and bonuses that it’s impossible to actually know what any civil servant earns. By the same token, French tax offices have always had difficulty assessing how much money there is in the country. The switch to the euro brought a lot of cash back into the system because an estimated 80 per cent of all five hundred–franc bills were said to be stashed in mattresses and pillows across the country. When French protesters demonstrate, they never openly ask for money; they wrap it in another demand like better working conditions.
  • Assel Stambekovahas quoted6 years ago
    France is not what it used to be. France has never been what it used to be, and it never will. So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

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