I've liked what he's written about pre-Revolutionary France, I'll admit (The Great Cat Massacre, The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary France), but I really think he should stick to that, since he doesn't seem to understand the Revolution, its historiography, or modern France on a very profound level. (And yet it seems as if he thinks he does, which is almost worse!)
to him, European postwar politics are just another interesting phenomenon to go 'hmm!' over, in a patronising way. You've touched on the reason I rarely trust Americans to write about France. In some parts of the article, it seems to me, the tone even veers from patronising to contemptuous.
Really, I think it's a terrible idea to try to use any film to teach history, but if you're going to do that, seriously, pick a film that is really about the period you're teaching about (and doesn't have glaring historical inaccuracies, unless the point of watching the film is to point them out). Maybe it would be a good film to show if you were teaching about Poland in the 1980s, but France in the 1790s?
And I must say I find the revisionist assumption that only Communists could possibly support the Revolution insulting--though I know it's part of their larger agenda to discredit the Revolution entirely.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-08-20 04:41 pm (UTC)to him, European postwar politics are just another interesting phenomenon to go 'hmm!' over, in a patronising way.
You've touched on the reason I rarely trust Americans to write about France. In some parts of the article, it seems to me, the tone even veers from patronising to contemptuous.
Really, I think it's a terrible idea to try to use any film to teach history, but if you're going to do that, seriously, pick a film that is really about the period you're teaching about (and doesn't have glaring historical inaccuracies, unless the point of watching the film is to point them out). Maybe it would be a good film to show if you were teaching about Poland in the 1980s, but France in the 1790s?
And I must say I find the revisionist assumption that only Communists could possibly support the Revolution insulting--though I know it's part of their larger agenda to discredit the Revolution entirely.