Nadeau Jean-Benoit, Barlow Julie. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong (What makes the French so French)

Sourcebooks, 2003. — 351 p.The French...Smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans;
Work 35-hour weeks, and take seven weeks of paid holidays per year, but are still the world's fourth-biggest economic power.So what makes the French so different?Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong is a journey into the French heart, mind and soul. Decrypting French ideas about land, privacy and language, Nadeau and Barlow weave together the threads of French society--from centralization and the Napoleonic Code to elite education and even street protests--giving us, for the first time, a complete picture of the French.