A great historian’s review of the long sweep of French history, from prehistoric times to the modern era, is Fernand Braudel, The Identity of France, 2nd ed. (1988–90, originally published in French, 1986), and The Identity of France: People and Production (1990; originally published in French, 1986). Excellent thematic treatments are provided in Marc Bloch, French Rural Society: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics (1966; originally published in French, 1931), a classic study; Fernand Braudel and Ernest Labrousse (eds.), Histoire économique et sociale de la France (1970–82); Georges Duby and Armand Wallon (eds.), Histoire de la France rurale, 4 vol. (1975–76, reprinted 1992); and Georges Duby (ed.), Histoire de la France urbaine, 5 vol. (1980–85). Gaul
A stimulating overview of Gaul in the context of French prehistory and early history is found in J.M. Wallace-Hadrill and John McManners (eds.), France: Government and Society, 2nd ed. (1970). Outstanding investigations of particular sites and areas of relevance to the study of Gaul as a whole are Edith Mary Wightman, Gallia Belgica (1985); and A.L.F. Rivet, Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae: Southern France in Roman Times (1988). Life in later Roman Gaul is studied in John Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, A.D. 364–425 (1975, reissued 1998); and Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (1985, reissued 1992). John Frederick Drinkwater Jeremy David Popkin Merovingian and Carolingian age
A comprehensive introduction to the period is found in J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West, 400–1000, 3rd rev. ed. (1998). On the Merovingians, see the engaging overview in Patrick J. Geary, Before France and Germany (1988), and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings and Other Studies in Frankish History (1962, reprinted 1982). For the Carolingians, see Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (1993; originally published in French, 1983); and F.L. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy, trans. from French and German (1971). Special studies of the civilization of the period include J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983); Pierre Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth Through Eighth Centuries (1976; originally published in French, 3rd ed., 1962); Suzanne Fonay Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900 (1981, reprinted 1985); and Georges Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (1974, reissued 1978; originally published in French, 1973). Gabriel Fournier Bernard S. Bachrach Jeremy David Popkin The emergence of France in the Early Middle Ages, c. 850–1180
This period as a whole is well treated in Jean Dunbabin, France in the Making, 843–1180 (1985). The political history of this and the succeeding periods is surveyed best in Elizabeth M. Hallam and Judith Everard, Capetian France, 987–1328, 2nd ed. (2001); but Robert Fawtier, The Capetian Kings in France: Monarchy & Nation, 987–1328 (1960, reissued 1982; originally published in French, 1942), is still a useful classic. Social change and feudalization are studied in Marc Bloch, Feudal Society (1961, reprinted 1989; originally published in French, 1939–40), a seminal work. An alternative to Bloch’s model has been developed by Georges Duby, La Société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région mâconnaise (1953, reissued 1988), and The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (1980; originally published in French, 1978). Dominique Barthelemy, La Mutation de l’an mil, a-t-elle eu lieu?: servage et chevalerie dans la France des Xe et XIe siècles (1997), is also important. France in the later Middle Ages, 1180–1490
For the general political history of the period, see the works of Hallam and Fawtier in the previous section. Individual reigns are studied in John W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (1986); and William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (1979). For economy and society, see Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (1968, reprinted 1998; originally published in French, 1962). Social unrest is discussed in Michel Mollat and Philippe Wolff, The Popular Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages (1973; originally published in French, 1970). Charles Petit-Dutaillis, The French Communes in the Middle Ages (1978; originally published in French, 1947), remains the standard account on the cities and towns. T.N. Bisson Jeremy David Popkin France from 1490 to 1715
Janine Garrisson, History of Sixteenth-Century France (1995; originally published in French, 1991); and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Royal French State, 1460–1610 (1994; originally published in 1987), offer clear summaries of French history from the Renaissance through the Wars of Religion. David Potter, A History of Modern France, 1460–1560 (1995), is institutional rather than chronological in approach. J. Russell Major, Representative Government in Early Modern France (1980), and From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles & Estates (1994), explain the role of representative assemblies. Sarah Hanley, The Lit de Justice of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse (1983), analyzes one particularly important aspect of the relationship between monarch and institutions. See also R.J. Knecht, Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I, rev. and expanded ed. (1994); and David Parker, Class and State in Ancien Régime France: The Road to Modernity? (1996). Donald R. Kelley, The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation (1981), is a study of political thought.
Robin Briggs, Early Modern France, 1560–1715, 2nd ed. (1998), is a reliable introduction to 17th-century history. On the religious wars, Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 (1995), is an able synthesis. Barbara B. Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross (1991), shows the social origins of the rival religious parties. Roland Mousnier, The Assassination of Henry IV (1973; originally published in French, 1964), is a brilliant analysis of the intersection of politics and religion at the beginning of the 17th century.
Yves-Marie Bercé, The Birth of Absolutism: A History of France, 1598–1661 (1996; originally published in French, 1992), is an admirably clear narrative of the rise of the absolutist monarchy. James B. Collins, The State in Early Modern France (1995, reissued 1999), is an overview of the development of monarchical institutions from 1600 to the Revolution. David Buisseret, Henry IV (1984, reissued 1992), is a good life of the monarch who ended the religious wars. A. Lloyd Moote, Louis XIII, the Just (1989), brings Henri IV’s enigmatic successor to life. A.D. Lublinskaya, French Absolutism: The Crucial Phase, 1620–1629 (1968; originally published in Russian, 1965), discusses the economic crisis of the 17th century. Other works on the period’s political developments include Joseph Bergin, Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth (1985); J.H. Shennan, The Parlement of Paris, rev. ed. (1998); N.M. Sutherland, The French Secretaries of State in the Age of Catherine de Medici (1962, reprinted 1976); Richard Bonney, The King’s Debts: Finance and Politics in France, 1589–1661 (1981), and Society and Government in France Under Richelieu and Mazarin, 1624–61 (1988); and Sharon Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France (1986). Yves-Marie Bercé, History of Peasant Revolts (1990; originally published in French, 1986), synthesizes scholarship on popular movements. Orest Ranum, The Fronde: A French Revolution (1993), is a concise summary of the confusion of conflicts from 1648 to 1653. A. Lloyd Moote, The Revolt of the Judges: The Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643–1652 (1971), covers one important aspect of the Fronde. Geoffrey Treasure, Mazarin: The Crisis of Absolutism in France (1995), is a thorough biography of the man who preserved Richelieu’s handiwork and set the stage for Louis XIV’s reign. Elizabeth Rapley, The Dévotes: Women and Church in Seventeenth-Century France (1990, reissued 1993), highlights the role of women in the period’s Catholic revival.