The Smile Revolution: In Eighteenth Century Paris - Softcover

Colin Jones is Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London. He has published widely on French history, particularly on the eighteenth century, the French Revolution, and the history of medicine. His many books include The Medical World of Early Modern France (with Lawrence Brockliss, 1997), The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (2002), and Paris: Biography of a City (2004: winner of the Enid MacLeod Prize). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and Past President, Royal Historical Society.

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

Chosen as a 2014 Best Book of the Year by Slate, The Guardian, The Independent, and The New Statesman

"Compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"The most original approach to history in years ... [Colin Jones] had written one of the most absorbing and unusual history books imaginable" - Michael Prodger, Sunday Times

"Colin Jones knows as much about eighteenth-century France as anyone alive, and in this study he brings together his prodigious learning and robust curiosity to produce a book that should bring a smile to even the most sullen scholarly face."--The American Historical Review

"This short but dense book represents the "histoire des mentalites" at its best, as Professor Jones has successfully managed to weave into a single fluid, coherent, and elegant narrative whole chapters of social history, the history of medicine, of the body and emotions..."--H-France Review

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"In this vividly written book, Colin Jones recounts the unnoticed history of the smile in eighteenth-century France Jones effortlessly demonstrates how certain ideas about emotions can spread across domains and be embodied in diverse practices, to the point where idea and practice become rooted in common sense, in an emotional style. Jones effortlessly demonstrates, as well, that history can sweep such commonsense configurations into the dustbin, to disappear from view until rediscovered by a gifted historian."--Journal of Modern History

Chosen as a 2014 Best Book of the Year by Slate, The Guardian, The Independent, and The New Statesman

"Compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"The most original approach to history in years ... [Colin Jones] had written one of the most absorbing and unusual history books imaginable" - Michael Prodger, Sunday Times

"Colin Jones knows as much about eighteenth-century France as anyone alive, and in this study he brings together his prodigious learning and robust curiosity to produce a book that should bring a smile to even the most sullen scholarly face."--The American Historical Review

"This short but dense book represents the "histoire des mentalites" at its best, as Professor Jones has successfully managed to weave into a single fluid, coherent, and elegant narrative whole chapters of social history, the history of medicine, of the body and emotions..."--H-France Review

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