Winner, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for English Wine, Best Wine History Book, and Best Book on French WineWinner, Clicquot Wine Book of the Year CompetitionWhen Champagne Became French explains how nationhood emerges by viewing countries as cultural artifacts, a product of "invented traditions." In the case of France, scholars sharply disagree, not only over the nature of French national identity but also over the extent to which diverse and sometimes hostile provincial communities became integrated into the nation. Kolleen M. Guy offers a new perspective on this debate by looking at one of the central elements in French national culture -- luxury wine -- and the rural communities that profited from its production.