French history

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/17/19
  

  Why you don’t need to be French or Catholic to mourn the Notre Dame fire

  by Kisha G. Tracy

  The cathedral is an important part of our shared cultural heritage.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/16/19
  

  The story behind the towering Notre Dame spire and the 30-year-old architect commissioned to rebuild it

  Less than a week before fire tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a repair crew brought down religious statues for the first time in more than a century. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/15/19
  

  A history of great cathedrals that have been lost to fire and war

  Notre Dame is one in a long line of cathedrals that have been ravaged by fire or war.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/16/19
  

  Notre Dame was in ruins. Victor Hugo’s novel about a hunchback saved it.

  France has rebuilt its iconic cathedral before.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  4/15/19
  

  Art Historian Caroline Bruzelius Discusses The History Of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral

  NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with art historian Caroline Bruzelius about the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which caught on fire Monday.

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• SOURCE: History.com
  4/15/19
  

  The Notre-Dame Cathedral Was Nearly Destroyed By French Revolutionary Mobs

  In the 1790s, anti-Christian forces all but tore down one of France’s most powerful symbols.

• SOURCE: NYT
  2-12-13
  

  France takes step back in history

  ...And, much as President François Hollande of France denies that his country is still the gendarme of francophone Africa, the columns of French soldiers and planeloads of paratroops embroiled in the newest fighting recall much earlier campaigns.“There was a time when General Faidherbe pursued armed bands attacking the forts of the Sahel, and even then they professed radical Islam,” Bertrand Badie, a political science scholar in Paris, wrote in Le Monde, referring to Gen. Louis Faidherbe, who played a central role in solidifying French interests in the broad swath of desert known as the Sahel in the 19th century. “What have we done since then?”