Just six or seven generations separate the France of Napoleon from that of today's Fifth Republic. Yet the closeness of the past explored in this book, and the resonances that reverberate down through the years, are matched by transformations so profound that they can at times obscure the powerful continuities. The contributors to this major new history of modern France are alive to these contrasting elements and the tensions they induce. Within a clear chronological framework, they aim to present diversity but in a way that is comprehensible: to keep the colours and textures of the period but within a recognizable political context. Proper place is given to social and cultural history but always with a strong sense of the national and international events swirling around an 'histoire de tous les jours', a 'history of the everyday'.
Historians and peculiarities of French history; revolution, restoration and beyond; politics abd political cultures from restoration to Third Republic; society and people - "Bourgeois Centuries"?; backwar or different - the strange case of the French 19th century economy; Paris versus the provinces; the Jewish question from Dreyfus to Vichy; France's cultural clashes; political thought, intellectuals and the meanings of "France" 1890-1945; defending France - military policy and the quest for security abroad 1890-1945; the collapse of the Third Republic; Vichy, the resistance and de Gaulle; the economy and the "Great Leap Forward"; women society, and politics in modern France; French trade unionism, society and the state; religion and belief in 20th century France; France and its "other".
