Looking at ourselves

In 1910, the novelist Anatole France wrote of his country, "We in France are⋯ citizens. Our citizenship is [an]⋯ occasion for pride! For the poor it consists in supporting and maintaining the rich in their power and their idleness. At this task they must labor in the face of the majestic equality of the laws, which forbid rich and poor alike to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."¹ Only the poor were …