France since 1871 - Yale lecture podcast

France since 1871 (feed) is history lecture series that has been available for quite some time as a podcast. I knew it was there, but I was not particularly drawn to a modern history of France in particular, more to a more general European perspective. This we got at Yale from the same professor, John Merriman, as you may have seen in earlier reviews (see below). And now that I got acquainted with the lecturer, I decided to give the other course a try.

I have followed by around one third of the course and it sure worth a recommendation. For one who has followed the more general course with Merriman, there is much familiar talk to be encountered, yet the professor has more time to dwell on it. It needs also to be pointed out that this first part of the course is thematic. Merriman takes up a number of issues and treats them freely around 1871, taking us back, frequently as early as the French Revolution and painting the picture until the very beginning of the twentieth century.

Looking at the subjects of the rest of the lectures I expect that a little bit of this thematic approach will remain, but largely it will make place for the chronology. Merriman will carry us from the build-up of the First World War until France by the end of the twentieth century. This looks like a fine addition to the wide menu of podcasts in European history.

More John Merriman:
History of India or Europe?,
Industrial revolutions,
History of Europe.