Book Review: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Title: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong (Why We Love France But Not the French)
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barrow
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. (Naperville, IL)

As we began gearing up for deputation well more than a year ago, Tim and I were also becoming increasingly interested in beefing up on our knowledge of the French culture and thought. This book is the first of several we have been reading/have purchased to read in an attempt to better prepare ourselves for future life and ministry in France. Mom and Dad Bixby gave us this book as a gift for our seventh anniversary, and I have been reading it aloud to Tim little by little on long road trips. We have learned a lot from this book—in fact, more than I could ever convey here. It has also been confirming to find many of the same concepts reinforced through other reading that we had been doing concurrently with it (Au Contraire! and The French Way). The book really is as interesting as the title would lead one to believe, though honestly it plumbs such depths that I still don’t feel as if I have begun to grasp all of its implications. But it has provided us with a helpful framework to begin to understand how the French are different from us as Americans, and why we can’t begin to understand their thinking and perceptions by analyzing them through our “American glasses”.

The French Spirit
Written by a Canadian duo, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, which spent two years living in and studying France, the book is divided into three main sections: spirit, structure and change. In the first section on the French spirit, the authors undertake the task of explaining some of the intricacies of French culture and how so much of France’s modern orientation and worldview is derived from her long history. How her passion for the land and her sense of nobility go all the way back to the days of feudalism (when, I might add, no one but some Indians were running around in North America).The authors relate how attached the French are to rhetoric and how much they value the process of developing thoughts more than the ultimate goal of getting to a solution. In a chapter titled “Private Space,” the authors describe the French notion of public versus private, including what sorts of things the French would consider acceptable for public conversation (e.g. politics) and what topics would be considered completely taboo (e.g. religion) to their way of thinking. The authors also dealt with World War II and the Algerian Conflict and explored the many ways in which those major events have defined more recent French culture and thought.

The French Structure
The second division of the book identified the basic governmental and sociological structures upon which modern France is built. This section was especially helpful to my understanding of how France operates. Though it may seem paradoxical when one considers the significance of the French Revolution, the authors recount that the French have kept an undeniable attachment to absolutism. “The French, it seems, can’t resist making kings” (p. 118). The authors also observe how, unlike North Americans who build entire platforms around the notion of keeping the government out of their business, “the French look to the State for answers to everything” (p. 127). This section contained descriptions of the French judicial system, educational system, and their view of their own language. (“Anglo-Americans consider language a tool, but the French regard it as an accomplishment, even a work of art. … It’s their national monument” (p.162).) As a future immigrant to France, I found the topic of assimilation to be especially interesting. The authors explain that because the French are so committed to the concept of the State (l’Etat), they are consciously committed to ignoring facts like one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation. “Once you’re French, you’re nothing else. This attitude means the State doesn’t give—or really permit—anyone to have any other identity” (p. 139). Of course, where the rub comes in is in the fact that if one’s devotion to one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation is perceived to be stronger than one’s commitment to the State, then you may be perceived to be at odds with the State, which necessarily puts you at odds with the common good of the entire French people.

Future Change
The final section summarizes the French worldview as presented in previous chapters. Here are some highlights (taken from pp. 283-85):

• Because of their centuries-old attachment to the land, restriction is their second nature, not expansion.
• The French glorify what’s elevated and grand, not what’s common and accessible.
• They value form as much as content.
• The French don’t just glorify their élite; French society needs a clearly identified élite.
• They affirm the State’s role in virtually everything—culture, language, welfare, and the economy.
• The French have learned to live with the idea that they are neither the biggest, nor the strongest, power on earth. But they still believe they are the best.

The authors conclude by showing that the French are becoming more flexible than they used to be, recognizing the necessity of change in order to accommodate relationships with the European community and the world at large.

“One thing is certain: France is not what it used to be. France has never been what it used to be, and it never will. So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts” (p. 343).