It seems to have become virtually axiomatic that the French are a difficult people to understand, even to themselves. French intellectuals expend much brain power on the subject, but their definitions of their own race and culture usually end as achievements of dialectical ingenuity rather than of common sense and observation. Zeldin, as an English academic intellectual, in theory comes to the subject with a more open mind, but then the English are scarcely ever objective about their neighbours, and what they say often sheds more illumination on their own mentality than on that of others. Zeldin is strongest when he offers general information and trends, and is least interesting when he investigates case histories, e.g. an academic explaining how his marriage broke up and why he considers himself a failure. French bureaucracy is demonstrated to be less all powerful than is generally believed, and we are shown something of the managerial classes (certain aristocrats, rather surprisingly, are doing very well in the business and commercial areas, and membership of the exclusive Jockey Club is almost always an asset). Leading media figures are interviewed, including humorists (the French take their humour very seriously); attitudes to foreigners and immigrants are investigated. Unsurprisingly, French experiences of love, marriage and sex generally are extremely mixed and, in fact, sound very much like those of any other country of the West. French fashions, French cooking get chapters to themselves, though rather surprisingly the visual arts are almost ignored and few leading writers appear - not even a mention of Julian Green, or the leading poets. The works of leading cartoonists are lavishly reproduced, which gives the book an extra, aerated dimension.