Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [20]
Travel Guide to Europe, 1492: Ten Itineraries in the Old World, Lorenzo Camusso (Henry Holt, 1992). This unique book, published to coincide with the five hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Americas, deserves more than short-lived appreciation. Italian historian Camusso presents ten real (or probable) journeys in chronological order, so that readers may imagine the passing of time and events. The first portion of the book gives an overview of Europe in the fifteenth century and includes descriptions of what travel was like by horse, river, and seaworthy boats, as well as of road conditions, inns, money, royal families, artists and artwork, and food and drink. Of the ten itineraries, Paris and cities nearby are featured in three. It’s interesting to note that in a population chart of twenty cities on the itineraries, Paris was then the fifth largest after Istanbul (four hundred thousand) and Florence, Naples, and Venice (each with one hundred thousand).
WORLD WARS
France lost nearly two million men in World War I, equivalent to two out of every nine, and if today’s younger generations visiting Paris feel a bit removed from this war, all they have to do is visit a smaller French city or town; just about every one has its requisite World War I monument. (And if World War II too feels remote, a visit to the Normandy American Cemetery, with its seemingly endless rows of grave markers, should solidify a very real and present link—and this is only one World War II cemetery of more than 120 in France.) Over the years I have found these monuments quite moving, and I’ve taken numerous photographs of them, probably enough for a book. As renowned military historian John Keegan notes, the list of names on these monuments is “heartrendingly long,” and even more heartrending is that you’ll often notice several names repeated, testifying to more than one death in the same family.
Keegan writes that “the First World War was a tragic and unnecessary conflict,” and “the Second World War, when it came in 1939, was unquestionably the outcome of the First, and in large measure its continuation.… In 1914, by contrast, war came, out of a cloudless sky, to populations which knew almost nothing of it and had been raised to doubt that it could ever again trouble their continent.” In any compilation of recommended books on the world wars, Keegan’s top the list, and are on my short list, too. Keegan has served as senior lecturer in military history at the Royal Military Academy in England and was named by the New York Times Book Review “the best military historian of our day.” His The First World War (Knopf, 1999) was widely acclaimed, and referred to by the Washington Post as “a grand narrative history [and] a pleasure to read.” An Illustrated History of the First World War (Knopf, 2001) includes some text from his previous World War I book and some that is new, as well as photographs, paintings, cartoons, and posters belonging to archives in both Europe and America.
Other world war reads I highly recommend include:
Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France, Carmen Callil (Knopf, 2006). I’m fascinated by the opening sentences of books, and the opening line for this one hooked me right away: “There are many things to make one wretched on this earth.” Callil’s childhood was the thing to make her wretched, and when she was twenty-one she tried to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. The London doctor into whose care she was admitted, Anne Darquier, once told Callil that “there are some things and some people you can never forgive.” In 1970, Callil arrived at Dr. Darquier’s for an appointment, but there was no answer at the door, and later that day she received word that Anne was dead. When she attended Anne’s funeral, she thought it was odd that Anne’s name appeared with