Wonderful reading, but this is a lengthy book. . .adressing so many important aspects about French peasant society. It was written in a time when advanced students were expected to know French, so it may present some difficulty to those without the knowledge or a dictionary handy, assuming one wants to understand the quotations, samples of poetry, song, or colloquial dialogue. It is not of major consequence to understand the book, but it might be a little annoying to someone without an intimate grasp of French.

Since there are great content reviews already, I will not add anything more than the tips above. Overall, this is a book rich in facts and will certainly prove a welcome addition to the library of any advanced student or scholar in this subject area.

This superb book traces the modernization of rural France in the last quarter of the 19th century. The book is divided into 3 parts; descriptions of traditional rural France, analysis of the agents of change, and discussion of how changes took place. This book is about both material changes and the parallel changes in psychology that were part of and the result of modernization in France. The emphasis is not primarily on economic statistics but on the day to day life and psychology of rural France. This book provides real insight into the mentality of French peasants and how this mentality was transformed from parochial self-conceptions and accompanying insular social organization to conceptions of French nationality and conscious membership in French society. For example, in the mid-19th century, a large number of Frenchmen did not speak French but rather a variety of regional languages. Expansion of the national economy, mandatory primary education, and other forces would eventually destroy local languages and produce a more homogenous French speaking nation. Weber demonstrates convincingly that this process took place relatively rapidly, focused in the years between the Franco-Prussian War and WWI. While this is a very thick and scholarly book, the quality of writing is excellent and the book is packed with entertaining and revealing anecdotal information.

It is clear that the process of modernization was accompanied by loss of regional cultural distinctions and languages. This cultural homogenization is perhaps regrettable but was an inevitable part of a process that resulted also in higher standards of living, greater individual freedom, and several other benefits. For example, Weber reminds us that in much of traditional rural France, seasonal hunger was common and famine a real possibility. By the end of the 19th century, famine was a vague memory and seasonal hunger largely banished. Similarly, modernization was accompanied by a fall in violence against persons, less child abuse, and weakening of overbearing patriarchial family structure.

This book has a couple of interesting resonances. The period covered by this book is also the height of European Imperialism. As Weber points out, the processes of modernization in rural France were identical to the processes of colonialization. Indeed, the modernization of rural France in the late 19th century can been seen as the final phase of the conquest of France by the region around Paris, a process that began with the Albigensian crusade in the 13th century. Ii is conventional today to depict European Imperialism as the result of the tremendous racism of that time. Yet, the modernization of rural France was essentially the same process carried out against fellow Frenchmen. This fact points out that the relationship between racism and imperialism is more complicated than commonly depicted.

Another interesting resonance relates to the recent tendency of French intellectuals and politicians to denounce the creeping 'Americanization' of French culture. These individuals like to present themselves as guardians as ancient cultural traditions. Yet, many, if not all of these traditions originate in the 19th century. Hardly ancient, and you can argue that American traditions are at least as old. Further, where modern French culture was to a large extent imposed by the coercive acts of the French government, 'Americanization' is the result of free consumer choice.

Eugen Weber has given us an excellent account of the rural countryside of France, 1870-1914. He gives plenty of detail and clearly shows how France has leaped into the modern world. It is a well written and provides the reader with a comprehensive picture of the early stages of modern France. The title is excellently chosen and reflects the true essence of the work. I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in demographics, sociology, or history in general. It is a nice read! :)

Apocalypses; Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages, by Eugen Weber, well, the title says it all. This book covers every apocalyptic movement since they first began, and does it in nearly chronological order. Weber writes with a great sense of humor, which keeps this book from being completely mind-numbing. Its not the subject that is monotonous, but the overwhelming number of movements covered. I had no idea just how ubiquitous apocalyptic movements are and have been. This is not a new phenomenon, but one that has persisted for over two millennia of history, even proceeding Christ. I recommend this book as a good reference for anyone studying apocalyptic movements, but it might be a bit much for casual reading by the merely curious.

An amusing and often enlightening book about the many prophecies - from the ancient past to our days - announcing the end of times. After reading this book it will be impossible to listen to the "revelations" of the many charlatans opening - in good or bad faith - their mouth with certainty to find credulity. Too many times the end has been "tomorrow", but too often this has been forgotten.

Review by Marianne Luban:

When the Year 1000 was drawing near, people took it as an omen when Halley's Comet streaked across the heavens. Did this portend Doomsday or the advent of the Messiah? Was Man marching inexorably into the dusk or the dawn? Another thousand years later, we still don't positively know the answer to that question.

The eminent historian, Eugen Weber, delivers his latest work, "Apocalypses", just in time to ponder our status on the brink of the new millennium and to give us insight into the hopes and fears of previous generations who found themselves hesitating before the looming gateway of a new era, weighing prophecies or confronted with phenomena consisting of "lamps of fire, angels, plagues, lightenings, thunderings, earthquakes, falling stars, fire, blood, hail, black sun and bloody moon". Weber writes: "When the world ends, it could be argued that all that ends is the world we know. The end of the world was really only the end of one world, not the end of time but of our time, not the annihilation of mankind but the end of a way of life and its replacement by another."

While some contemplated finales, optimists dreamed and wrote of their hopes for an enlightened, repentant world and the regeneration of the human race: "They speak, earth, ocean, air; I hear them say 'Awake, repent, 'ere we dissolve away!" Yet others faced the unknown and dire forebodings armed with their wit. According to Weber, when Pope Benedict XIV was informed that the AntiChrist had come and was now three years old, the pontiff quipped, "Then I shall leave the problem to my successor."

Eugen Weber must be the world's most fascinating conversationalist. One gets the impression, from reading "Apocalypses", that he has the entire saga of mankind stored in his marvel of a brain and can conjure up imagery, names, anecdotes and dates from it with the same fluency that some of us have when writing a chatty postcard home, describing an exciting day in a far-away locale. This is not to imply that, although Weber's style is urbane and witty, that "Apocalypses" is an easy read. It is not. Eugen Weber is never ponderous, but he makes it plain that he is first and foremost an historian and only secondarily a raconteur. Or perhaps thirdly, because Weber as philosopher is also very much a presence in the book. In fact, it is his own thoughts and comments that leave the most lingering impressions, reminding us that, while the deeds of Man are fleeting, it is his "death-defying thoughts", set down on paper, that are like the nacreous bits of shell that remain gleaming on the beach after the great tides of history have flooded and ebbed. For an academic, Eugen Weber is a very good writer, indeed.

How different our "fin de siecle" seems from bygone chronological milestones. No longer moved by superstition and too jaded for optimism, we await the Millennium with a kind of dull signation. Our popular heroes are all dead or aging and nobody has emerged to replace them. The close of the century seems characterized by vapidity, greed and a lack of concern for the health of the planet we call home. Could there be a more fitting commentary on the status quo than that our direst prophecy for the Year 2000 concerns the imminent failure of the Machine, upon which we have formed such a frightening dependency? Eugen Weber doesn't have an email address. Perhaps he never will. Intellectually speaking, his address is the universe, his understanding cosmic. Doubtless he would like to offer greater comfort, but the honest scholar can only counsel, while commenting on the recent trend toward apocalyptic films and literature: "Adversity is good for faith, and adversity is ever present. Ages of decadence always suggest an end; few ages have not struck their contemporaries by their decadence" and "We suffer and suffering is catastrophic, sometimes unbearable, sometimes final....We yearn for some explosive, extraordinary escape from the inescapable and, none forthcoming, we put our faith in an apocalyptic rupture whereby the inevitable is solved by the unbelievable...in the end, salvation from sin and evil--meaning anxiety, travail and pain."

Marianne Luban is a freelance writer living in Minnesota. Her short fiction collection, "The Samaritan Treasure", is published by Coffee House Press