France on the Brink
Jonathan Fenby
<p>This completely revised and fully updated edition of the book Bill Bryson called “superb" presents a sharply insightful, authoritative portrait of France today as it struggles to live up to its vision of itself amid storm clouds that won't go away.<br><i>France on the Brink</i> was chosen as a <i>New York Times</i> book of the year and hailed by the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> as “a comprehensive and entertaining diagnosis of what ails French society" when the first edition was published at the turn of the century. Since then, the crisis enveloping France has only worsened, and this second edition, completely revamped to cover the developments of the past fifteen years, offers a fresh assessment of where the nation stands. New chapters chart political developments under Presidents Chirac, Sarkozy, and Hollande; the rise of the hard right National Front; and the unrelenting economic woes that have led to unprecedented levels of disillusion and fragmentation. The...</p>