[lbo-talk] as if on cue

[Rory Dufficy]

>
> .
> Stalin's common language and common culture simply don't fit actual
> history.
> I came across something in the last year or so on France which indicated
> that it did not have either a common language or culture, not even an
> approach to such, until imposed in the late 19th-c. I can't remember any of
> the details, so this isn't too reliable but it seemed persuasive at the
> time. Something like that would explain the eagerness of the French army to
> find an internal enemy in Drefuss.
>

You might be thinking of Graham Robb's 'The Discovery of France'. He's
written biographies of Hugo, Balzac, Baudelaire and Rimbaud, so would
presumably know the French 19th century well, but I'd still be a little
suspicious of the book, if only because in his new work, "Parisians' he
apparently has some very unkind things to say about the communards -
although I suppose you could argue that he went one better than most
mainstream historians in that he at least mentioned them. David Bell's
review, admittedly published in the New Republic, seems a fairly convincing
critique of the 'discovery' book:

http://www.powells.com/review/2008_02_07.html