APPLYING THE PAGE 69 TEST AND A RECOMMENDATION.

APPLYING THE PAGE 69 TEST AND A RECOMMENDATION. I looked at page 69 of a book I am currently reading, Graham Robb’s THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE. On page 69 he is writing of how the French Revolution created “departements”, each with an administrative center of at most one day’s journey for its inhabitants. Robb says that the result of the Revolution’s egalitarian reforms accelerated the rise of an urban middle class which was not attached to local identities: “The historical divisions of France came to be associated with quaint provincials and primitive peasants.” So in this case, the Page 69 Test gets at the central argument of a great book. And I do think this is a great book, one of the best history books I have ever read.