63453X1 University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln: 2004. 190 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book. In the French CamargueÑthe delta surrounding the mouth of the Rhone River and part of the southern "nation" of OccitaniaÑthe bull is a powerful icon of nationalism, literature, and culture. How this came to beÑhow the Camargue bull came to confront the French cock, venerable symbol of a unified and republican FranceÑis the story told in this ingenious study. Robert Zaretsky considers how in fin-de-si¸cle France the young writer Folco de Baroncelli, inspired by the history of the American West, in particular the fate of the Oglala Sioux and other Native American peoples, reinvented the history of Occitania. Galvanized by the example set by Buffalo Bill Cody, Baroncelli recast the Camargue as "le far-west" of France, creating the "immemorial" traditions he battled to protect. Zaretsky's study examines the creative tension between center and periphery in the making of modern France: just as the political and intellectual elite of the Third Republic "invented" a certain kind of France, so too did a coterie of southern writers, including Baroncelli, "invent" a certain kind of Camargue. The story of how the Camargue bull challenged the French cock in this ideological and cultural Wild West deepens our appreciation of the complex dynamic that has created contemporary France. Robert Zaretsky is an associate professor in the Honors College and Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Houston and the author of N”mes at War: Religion, Politics, and Public Opinion in the Department of the Gard, 1938-1944. "Robert Zaretsky's engrossing story of the ways in which a distinctive local identity was constructed in the late nineteenth century. . . . makes a real contribution to a genre that has produced some of the finest writing on modern France. . . . An insightful and thought-provoking book, based on an impressive knowledge of this region and its history. Like Zaretsky's prose, the books's production is of the highest quality."ÑPeter McPhee, American Historical Review "This is a suggestive book that students of regional identities and cross-cultural contact will want to read."ÑH-France Review "This is an interesting book, well worth reading. Compact and nicely written. . . . it is in some ways a publisher's dream."ÑJohn Merriman, History $49.95USD
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