Frederick Brown (1) (1934–)

French political history is, to me, much more interesting than American or British politics, because the gap between the players is so much larger. However much Americans or the British may disagree on policy, there's general constitutional agreement — acceptance that republican democracy on the one hand, or parliamentary monarchy on the other, is the way to organize society. Not so in France, as Frederick Brown demonstrates in this intellectual history of the French right in the decades show more leading up to Vichy. Brown's primary tool is a series of multi-chapter biographies of prominent French intellectuals of the Third Republic, thinkers who came to reject liberalism, democracy and Jews as cancers on the nation. The biographical sketches can get over-long and distract from the book's broader themes, but they help illustrate through examples the ideology that helped tear the French Republic apart. (Brown is also critical, though much more briefly, of the Far Left during this same time, who similarly embraced totalitarianism as an improvement on a parliamentary Republic. To the degree he has sympathies, it's with the comparatively moderate Socialists of Léon Blum, who are shown to reject totalitarianism and anti-Semitism without reaching the fecklessness of the largely contemptuous latter-day Radicals, "who were radical in name only.") I personally preferred Brown's previous work, "For the Soul of France," as a more engaging work less caught up in the private lives of writers, but "The Embrace of Unreason" is still enlightening. show less

A model of popular history: responsible, broad, with great narrative drive, but also a fine eye for scenes and details. It's the sort of history book I can't wait to re-read.

This is a richly detailed, satisfying biography of naturalist novelist Emile Zola. Brown surrounds the life with a tapestry of French and Parisian history and culture. I'm learning a lot from this book, and having a wonderful time doing so.

Note you WILL get spoilers for all the Rougon-Macquart novels (and other works) you haven't yet read -- if that's important for you. My 60 year old memory is sufficiently dull now that I won't mind -- by the time I get around to the volumes I haven't read, show more I'm sure I will have forgotten Brown's descriptions.

One tiny knock -- Brown seems fond of spinning at times quite Freudian interpretations of some of the actions of his big cast of characters. These interpretations are sometimes convincing, and sometimes not. Still, a great book/biography. If you love or even just like Zola, read this. show less

Rather a let-down after Brown's look at the Dreyfus era; this one is much less focused, is nowhere near as good on contextualizing and stringing together a narrative, and has an unfortunate case of the 'fair and balanceds,' so that everyone has to be equally unreasonable--as though rampant anti-semitism and fascism are no better and no worse than someone like Gide hoping for a moment that the grotesqueries of the first half of the twentieth century might be overcome by communism. I mean, he show more was wrong in that moment, but he wasn't literally murdering politicians in the street for being Jewish, so you might want to throw in some sense of proportion. show less