Volume 38, Number 11 · June 13, 1991
French Cuffs
By Douglas V. Johnson
Fragile Glory: A Portrait of France and the French
by Richard Bernstein
Knopf, 349 pp., $24.95
Beyond the Tunnel of History
by Jacques Darras, with Daniel Snowman
University of Michigan Press, 123 pp., $19.95
'La France en Politique 1990'
Esprit, 219 pp., 70.00 Fr.
La Vengeance des Nations
by Alain Minc
Grasset, 273 pp., 100 Fr.
One fine summer's day, the great Lord Curzon, then British secretary of state for foreign affairs, received a delegation from Mosul. When they were ushered in to his presence he was busy writing and he invited them to go to the window and to look at the people enjoying the sunshine in the park. They were polite men and they did so. After a while Lord Curzon joined them. 'How many people do you think we can see?' he asked. Since they were especially polite men the delegation ventured on a number of guesses. But the secretary of state soon put an end to the conversation. 'It doesn't matter how many there are,' he said. 'But you can be sure of one thing. Not a single one of them has ever heard of Mosul.' Thus the delegation was put in its place. They knew how unimportant they were.
Review, 3937 words
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