Celebrating Bastille Day

Celebrated on July, 14, Bastille Day is the French national day and one of the most important bank holidays in France. The day commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789, a medieval fortress and prison which was a symbol of tyrannical Bourbon authority and had held many political dissidents, and symbolizes the end of absolute monarchy and the birth of sovereign Nation.

Joining the celebration Berghahn is pleased to highlight our Berghahn Monographs in French Studies series, as well as offer a selection of related interest titles and FULL ACCESS to French Politics, Culture & Society journal* until July 21, 2022! Scroll down for details.

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Book Preview: THE MEANINGS OF A DISASTER (International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day)

An abandoned school in Pripyat, Ukraine located a few miles from the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sean Gallup/Getty Images (History.com)
The United Nations has proclaimed 26 April International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. The day was first observed in 2016, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
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Author news: Ulrich Herbert is Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor 2019/20

The German Historical Institute London (GHIL), the International History Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the Gerda Henkel Foundation in Düsseldorf have appointed Berghahn author Ulrich Herbert to the position of Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor 2019/20. He will give his inaugural lecture on December 10th, 2019 at the German Historical Institute (see the GHIL website for more information).

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Happy Bastille Day

paris-1293750_1920Celebrated on July, 14, Bastille Day is the French national day and one of the most important bank holidays in France. The day commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789, a medieval fortress and prison which was a symbol of tyrannical Bourbon authority and had held many political dissidents, and symbolizes the end of absolute monarchy and the birth of sovereign Nation.

The following year, the Fête de la Fédération was held in Paris and across the nation by a populace that largely believed the French Revolution was over. As it turned out, they were mistaken–and by 1791 there was little in the way of national unity to celebrate. The holiday wasn’t picked up again until 1878 when it was a one-time official feast to honor the French Republic, which was followed by an unofficial, popular celebration of the day in 1879, which in turn led to a call to make it an official holiday in 1880 complete with a military parade which has been an annual fixture ever since.


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1968: Looking on 50 Years Later

 

The year 1968 brought a wave of anti-authoritarian political activity across Europe and beyond which may have been seen as a decisive turning point in the Western world. The protests and social movements of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social and political conflicts and marked the climax of protests that simultaneously captured most industrialized Western countries.
Here, we gather a short reading list of titles that explore the effects of these protest movements on the political, social, and symbolic order of the societies they called into question:

 


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Visit Berghahn at The Society for French Historical Studies 2016 Meeting!

We are delighted to inform you that we will be attending SFHS 62nd Annual Conference in Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, March 3-6, 2016. Please stop by Berghahn table to browse our latest selection of books at a special discount price & pick up free journals’ samples.

 

If you are unable to attend, we would like to provide you with a special discount offer. For the next 30 days, receive a 25% discount on all French History titles found on our website. At checkout, simply enter the discount code SFHS16. Visit our website­ to browse our newly published interactive online History 2016 catalog or use the new enhanced subject searching features­ for a complete listing of all published and forthcoming titles.

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Below is a preview of some of our newest releases on display.

 

FRANCE AFTER 2012
Edited by Gabriel Goodliffe and Riccardo Brizzi

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Bastille Day

July 14th is a celebration of French National Day or commonly known to the English speaking countries as Bastille Day. The day commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789 and symbolizes the end of absolute monarchy and the birth of sovereign Nation. It is also a day of la Fête de la Fédération, a joyous celebration in 1790 that honored the new French Republic and commemorated the one year anniversary of the storming of the Bastille.

 

Berghahn is delighted to suggest a selection of French Studies titles, along with some Berghahn Journals articles to browse through:

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THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION IN FRANCE (1789-1815)
Henry Heller

Volume 5: Berghahn Monographs in French Studies Series

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The Political Backdrop of French Film

Fifty years of French cinema get their close-up in Hugo Frey’s Nationalism and the Cinema in France: Political Mythologies and Film Events, 1945-1995, published in July. Following, the author offers readers a new angle on the volume, which is itself a fresh perspective on French film against a nationalistic backdrop.

 

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Why did you write this book? What were your original aims?

 

The motivations for undertaking this research are complicated and now date from some time ago. Having written a study of the director Louis Malle (2004), I wanted to continue to develop my knowledge of French cinema, while still connecting to my other interests in national historiography and the collective memory of the Vichy period. However, I did not want to work on a conventional book about either ‘great French films of recent times’ or indeed something that just rehashed familiar debates already presented in titles such as Henry Rousso’s The Vichy Syndrome.

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War, Occupation, and Empire: Interview with Guest Editor Jean Elisabeth Pedersen

 

Historical ReflectionsThis is the fourth in a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the 40th volume of our journal Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques.

 

A recent issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques is devoted to the special topic of “War, Occupation, and Empire in France and Germany.” This post is the transcript of an electronic interview between Berghahn blog editor Lorna Field and the Guest Editor of this special issue, Jean Elisabeth Pedersen.

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