L’Histoire de la France rurale is a large joint publication that was directed by Georges Duby and published from 1975 to 1977 by Éditions du Seuil. It was met with great commercial, academic and editorial success. It benefited from the editors’ capacities to reconcile and combine multiple factors at play and took root in a particular media context where television occupied a prominent place. Therefore, the book’s impact on the Seuil’s historical book production has to be noted.