A Small City in France

by Françoise Gaspard

Book Overview

The picturesque town of Dreux, 60 miles west of Paris, quietly entered history in 1821 when Victor Hugo won the hand of his beloved there. Another century and a half would pass before the town made history again, but this time there was nothing quiet about it. In 1983, Jean-Francois Le Pen's National Front candidates made a startling electoral gain in the Dreux region. Its liberal traditions had ended abruptly. With the radical right controlling the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674810961
• ISBN13: 9780674810969
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.

Customer Reviews

More Relevant than Ever

Gaspard, a historian and the one-time socialist mayor of the small town of Dreux, sets out to explain how the extreme-right National Front took control of the municipal council of Dreux in the 1980s. What follows is an insightful and provocative analysis of the failure of politics in an era of changing economic fortunes. There's much to learn here on patterns of immigration, town planning, and local politics. It is not beach reading, but should be considered essential for anyone who wants to understand the crisis of integration in France today.

very good

very interesting village in franc