Geographer's 'forgotten French' shakes up political class

When France's left-leaning daily Liberation newspaper devoted a cover and two full pages last month to a book on geography, author Christophe Guilluy understood that his message was reaching a wider audience than his peers in the field.

The book, a geographical study entitled The Peripheral France, has set off a heated debate in the media and in the hallways of French power about a country beset by high unemployment and facing the rapid rise of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front party.

Guilluy's argument is simple, yet provocative: An ostensibly unified country is, in fact, split in two, between rich, globalized, culturally vibrant cities like Paris and Lyon, and a depressed "periphery" being left behind.