France: More Struggle Than Romance — A History of Conflict and Contradiction
Creatrip Team
a month ago
Historian Joo Kyung-chul’s nearly 1,000-page France history argues that the familiar image of France as a land of Seine, Eiffel Tower and romance was largely crafted after World War I. Over two millennia, France’s story is better described as continuous struggle — internal wars, revolutions, the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, the 1968 uprisings — producing a “diversity made of blood.” The book highlights France’s high achievements (Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau and Voltaire, early experiments in modern institutions, early abolition of slavery) alongside dark episodes: revolutionary violence against local populations, imperialist brutality in Africa and Asia, and aggressive wars under Louis XIV and Napoleon. Joo notes that French history is marked by internal conflict (“civil war” as historian Marc Ferro called it) and that contemporary French self-perception as the center of Europe and the world can provoke resentment. Now near retirement, Joo plans a new research office and a world history book for middle-school readers.
