French History: A Captivating Guide to the History of France, Charlemagne, and Notre-Dame de Paris (History of European Countries)

Wow! There is a lot of information in this three part book bundle.. This book covers ancient France, The Vikings, Romans, and many names that you will recognize- Napolean, Joan of Arc, Charlemagne. Notre-Dame de Paris is also covered in this set of books. I learned more than I learned in my history classes in school. This is really worth reading to learn more about France, its history and its impact on the world.

I love these books as they are always informative, educational and interesting! Provides the right amount of facts/tidbits - not too little, not too much.

This package comes in three sections. The first part recounts the history of France from before the bronze age to the late 20th century from a neutral, but French-leaning, perspective. France was fist occupied by prehistoric man nearly 15000-17000 years ago (caves at Lascaux). The early inhabitants’ stories are told through archeological evidence and legend up until the beginning of the Common Era (CE). Rome occupied much of France through the 6th century CE and the area’s history reflects their influence. After the Romans left, the biggest impact on French evolution is told through the stories of the major figures of their respective times; Vercingetorix, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and King Louis XIV. In the background of the second millennium are the ongoing conflicts with England across the English Channel and around the world as the ‘voyages of discovery and colonization’ come to pass. 20% of this section is spent on providing details of the French Revolution and another 20% on Napoleon’s rule. France’s central roles in both World Wars I and II and the events precipitating them are nicely summarized. The book’s ‘Conclusion’ is actually a succinct summary of the happenings after WWII, rather than an overarching summation, although there is a short wrap-up. There are numerous illustrations and maps throughout the book which help the reader understand the discussions. The Author also takes time to debunk many misconceptions brought about by television and film inaccuracies. The Second portion chronicles the history of one of France’s most famous kings, CHARLEMAGNE. It covers the times leading up to his assuming the position as king and what happens to his heirs until the blood line is ended. Charlemagne was not only an important figure to France, he essentially unified what today is known as Europe, the largest holding of any ruler at the time. During his 47-year reign, he was continually expanding his empire, with very few setbacks. He was not only an excellent battlefield commander; he was also an excellent leader. He standardized the currency, architecture and education systems in the lands under his control. He also brought Christianity to the people. While it sometimes gets confusing when the past is retold to place events in context, this is an excellent summary of the life and times of a man who many know his name, but not the details of his story. The third section covers the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. The building sits on a site that has had religious connections since the beginning of the Common Era (CE). A previous 600-year-old church was leveled to provide the space for the current building which took 200 years to build and has stood for over 900 years. The cost to raise the structure is estimated to be around 1 Billion dollars in today’s value. No wonder it has become a national icon and a defining symbol of Paris and France. During its existence, it has been renovated and updated several times for various reasons. There have also been times when it did not serve as a church. It has been the site of many important secular events, such as the crowning of Napoleon as emperor. It was fortunate in not being in any major battle zones during WWII, but in recent times has been attacked by pollution. Alas, in 2019 an accidental fire caused major destruction, but many of the relics were saved. Again, 1 Billion dollars has been pledged to restore Notre Dame to its former glory. This book chronicles it’s entire history, and it’s importance as a symbol for many causes.

My father will love this.

Matt Clayton provides a rich read of the history of that portion of Europe associated with France by starting with the 1940 discovery of the cave paintings of Lascaux. These paintings are estimated to be between 15,000 and 17,000 and reflect human habitation in this area starting with that period. In the opening Matt admits that this publication is so involved and intricated that a forest would be consumed in documenting the history of France. So he limits this work to an introduction of some of the greatest Frenchmen and women in history and provides a feeling of the time and events that they lived in. Still, with that limitation, he manages to assemble one of his largest publications which lands just under 250 pages. With a concise style, he manages to cover an incredible compilation of facts from the last Great Ice Age to the Rise of Rome covering a few significant individuals such as Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, William of Normandy, Louis XIV, and Napoleon. The publication tells the story of France through personalities but then moves into the French Revolution which has had a dramatic influence in Western culture. France also had a significant role in the history of the New World and vestiges of its participation still are found all over the globe. Sadly, Germany dominated France during the second world war, but the nation recovered after Germany was defeated by the Allied forces. History is like a series of puzzle pieces. You can have comprehension of some of them and have placed them where they belong on the puzzle board. Other pieces still must be discovered and placed in their proper place. Charles the Great is one of those enigmas. As described by Matt Clayton in his introduction of Charlemagne: A Captivating Guide to the Greatest Monarch of the Carolingian Empire and How He Ruled over the Franks, Lombards, and Romans, Charlemagne was an enigma; a warrior, ruler, patron of the arts and language. Terrorist, brutal oppressor, protector of the good, Guardian of Christendom and Father of Europe. This 98-page writing sets the reader up with an early history before the time of the Great King which explains how the Franks defeated Attila the Huns and subsequently freed themselves of Roman rule. Then we are exposed to the Merovingian dynasty and subsequent Carolingian dynasty. During that Carolingian dynasty, a mayor named Charles Martel led an outnumbered Frankish infantry to a surprise victory over a calvary of Umayyads at the Battle of Tours. Charles Martel went on to father the focus of this history, Charlemagne. This is just the beginning of a well-written history from Matt Clayton’s Charlemagne: A Captivating Guide to the Greatest Monarch of the Carolingian Empire and How He Ruled over the Franks, Lombards, and Romans will give you the settings that influenced the evolution of Europe, creating a path for the rise of both the Kingdome of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Matt finishes this bundle with the history of one of the most famous Catholic Cathedrals of medieval Europe, Notre-Dame. This structure experienced a tragic fire in 2019 but still observes Mass on a regular basis. Nine centuries has passed since its construction and its history is closely interlinked with that of France and its people. An extensive list of references is provided at the end.

Enjoyed these books, you'd not go wrong purchasing these if you want to have an understanding of revolution, Charlemagne the Great and the spectacular Notre Dame.

I was excited to read this as I’m finding it hard to find a book with good coverage and overview of ALL of France’s history, not just the Revolution. My family date back to at least 1000 AD through the Normans and Burgundians. Forget it. This book doesn’t delve into anything at all deeply, focusses too much time on the Revolution, to the detriment of all the rest of France’s amazing history. It’s also very cheaply printed on what feels like laser paper, and all images are very poor reproductions of unintelligible detail with no overview or “big picture” sense of historical times or events. Worse, there are many images so poorly cropped, far too dark with little contrast, and obvious computer screen captures, that I’m definitely convinced these are “desktop published” but the authors’ kid who is taking a software learning course online & printing these off in the family rec room! France’s history is so rich, with so many potentially visually stunning places, artifacts, buildings, locations and architecture, but the incredibly lousy and incredibly limited choices in black & white only to illustrate this book looks like the pimply teenaged kid who laid this out and their amateur parent author wouldn’t even stretch to paying any cheapo stock image services for a single quality image. Not that the “design”, lack of expert image editing, and cheapo print quality in black & white would have done quality images any justice, anyway. I was excited to see how extensive the historic subjects of the Clearly Captivating series titles range, but will never bother to pick up or but a copy of any of their books again. I recommending the series to my local library to consider buying for history buffs and amateur researchers like me to read before I got my copy of this in the mail. Imagine my embarrassment to have to call them after I got this to completely grovel & tell them to tear up my recommendation and to forget I even suggested it to them. Ugh!

I knew the book was going to be more a survey of French history, not a detailed accounting, but they leave out large periods. They barely mention the Capetian and Valois dynasties, and seem to only give only a couple paragraphs to the French Wars of Religion. These were the areas I was most interested in. They go from Charlegmagne to Joan of Arc, around 500 years skipped over. They do give a few pages to William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson, which to me is more key to English history than French. I think it would have been better to cover medieval/renaissance France in that space if they had to choose. They also have several paragraphs here and there comparing real history to depictions in tv/movies, such as Braveheart and Vikings. Again, given that they skip so much else, their decisions to give this space boggles my mind. I will give credit that what they do write about, is well written and entertaining. If you want something that just focuses on some key figures and is easy to read, but skips a lot in between, then this is the book for you. But if you want a solid survey of French history looks elsewhere. I was tempted to keep it for the separate manuscripts on Charlegmagne and Notre-Dame, but given they miss so much in the French History part, I have dubious trust that it's not the same for the other two as well. I'll be returning it, dissapointed.