Reviews for Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French

The average rating for Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-01-10 00:00:00 Katherine Harrop 60 Million Frenchman is split into three sections (1) French history (why certain events helped make the French the way they are). (2) French system (detailed analysis of almost every aspect of current--as of 2000--French life). (3) Projections for the future. I liked part one a lot. I think the chapters on the Algerian War and World War Two were particularly apt in explaining how the French mindset has been shaped in recent decades. Part two was good in spots, and reeeeally boring in spots. For example: first there's a whole chapter on grands ecoles, then, because that was apparently not enough, there was a whole chapter devoted exclusively to ENA. I liked some of the chapters on the political stuff though, and how different the French ideas of judicial and executive power are from the American. Part three was relatively short, a beautiful quick read after slogging through part two. It basically paves the way for what they discuss in their other book (The Story of French). All in all, it's an informative, mostly well-written, detailed look at French history, language, culture, technology, and politics--a perfect read if you're a Francophile, or if you're just wanting to learn more about the French mindset.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-12-30 00:00:00 Stacey Patterson So far, the book is proving to offer interesting insight in the mind of the north americans, not the french. I know the french. We're neighbours. I go there often. A couple of my best friends are french. France makes sense to me. The french make sense to me. The book, therefore, is for me an experience in reverse psychology - undestanding the mindset the authors come from that makes them write the way they do about the french. The things that surprise them or that they deem worthy of writing about are completely ordinary for me, but it makes me notice that for others this isn't so. Some of the generalizations the book makes are not to my liking; neither are some of the oversimplified conclusions they reach. Ok, it's clear I am not going to finish it. The prose was less than fluid and the authors' frame of mind eventually began to annoy me.