Julie Barlow Knihy

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 powerSo 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.

How did a dialect spoken by a few shepherds in Northern Spain evolve into the world's second most spoken language, the official language of twenty-one countries, and an unofficial second language in the United States? Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow explore the roots and global journey of modern Spanish. Their engaging narrative combines personal anecdotes, reflections, and thorough research, making it the first full biography of a language that has shaped our world and is known by two names—Spanish and Castilian. The journey begins with the ancient Phoenicians in "The Land of the Rabbits," later known as Hispania by the Romans. The language absorbed influences from Germanic, Arabic, and French cultures before taking its modern form amid the colonization of the New World. Key figures like Queen Isabella, Christopher Columbus, Cervantes, and Goya illustrate how Spain's Golden Age, the Mexican Miracle, and the Latin American Boom influenced the language's evolution. However, darker events like the Spanish Inquisition and political turmoil also played a role. The authors reveal that Spanish culture extends beyond stereotypes, showing its impact on American customs and artifacts, from the dollar sign to cowboy culture. This chronicle celebrates a vibrant language that has endured through conquests and challenges, becoming the voice of millions worldwide.