This book helps North Americans better understand the French by taking an in-depth look at French culture, and using history and cultural anthropology to illuminate the present. It offers an interpretation of some historical roots of French attitudes and institutions, as well as the changes in French society over the past three decades, to suggest and predict patterns of behavior. Offering a comparative outlook, this book provides a frameworkfor those with an advanced command of the French languageto describe France and the French in relation to others and to themselves.Chapter topics explore French points of view, family structures, the structure of society, religion, and more.For individuals with a good understanding of the French languagelooking for a better understanding of everything else French.