The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War Graham Robb While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Historians and anthropologists of the time referred to this land, without irony, as "Gaul", and Julius Caesar was still being quoted at the end of the nineteenth century as a useful source of information on the inhabitants of the vast interior. Graham Robb describes that unknown world - before and after the shattering arrival of modern civilization, from the end of the ancient re'gime to the early twentieth century - in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. Instead of reducing the history of the country to the acts of a few powerful individuals, he re-creates the daily experience of living and travelling in France, from the Alps to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean to the English Channel. The Discovery of France is both a history and a guidebook. It explains how the modern nation came to be, and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France - past and present - remains to be discovered. Graham Robb has published widely in French literature and history. His biographies of Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Rimbaud have won critical acclaim and were selected as New York Times Editor's Choices for best books of the year. Robb lives in Oxford, England.