Graham Robb's The Discovery of France

In Graham Robb's Discovery of France, Robb chronicles the social, geographical, and economic changes in France from the pre-revolutionary period until the first World War. Prior to new governmental policy and dramatic physical changes to the landscape, France was far from the unified nation state that is recognizable today. Much of the nation had yet to be discovered, nor had it been sufficiently recorded by a cartographer. The rich diversity of culture and language accounted by Robb attempts to evoke desire to regain that element of intrigue in French society and diminish the centralized influence of Paris on the countryside. Robb's sympathetic, anecdotal history of rural France demonstrates the Parisian absorption of several micro-cultures into the modern unified French nation amid illuminating a romantic way of life that existed prior to this colonization.

Robb begins his description of the microcultures that were able to escape Parisian influence during this period by outlining the social and geographical climate which permitted the autonomy of these groups. Secret army reports of the 1860s and 70s show that many of the citizens living within French control identified more closely with the pays in which they resided rather than exhibiting patriotism towards the nation state1. Despite the ruling classes fears that this divide would lead to anarchy, many of these pays such as Brittany and Provence, were 吐ully functioning jurisdictions with their own parliaments and unwritten constitutions2. The aim of these provinces was not to be absorbed into the larger Parisian society, but rather to avoid standardization and insulate their respective villages from outside influences and economic competition3. Prior to the revolutionary period this autonomy was easily maintained due to the lack of infrastructure and general stationary population of the territories. As Robb describes the motivations of the peasants to maintain this state of isolation, he simultaneously