This is an updated and revised new edition, which now takes into account the latest research and includes maps and more coverage of key topics, including France's role in post-war European integration.It covers a key period of French history that is much studied at undergraduate level. It is thoroughly revised and updated to take into account the latest research. It includes maps, two new final chapters, and more coverage of key topics such as racial strife, colonial difficulties and France's role in post-war European integration (including the EU).Widely praised when it was first published, this new edition has been brought up to the present and thoroughly revised to take into account the latest research. It now includes maps and more coverage of topics such as: racial strife, colonial difficulties, France's role in post-war European integration (including the EU), and women and gender.

PART I: THE BIRTH OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC, 1870-1885 France in 1870 The Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, 1870-71 The Triumph of the Republicans, 1871-85 The Cultural Bases of Republicanism PART II: TESTING TIME FOR THE REPUBLIC, 1885-1918 Challenges to the Republic (1): Constructing the Modern Right Challenges to the Republic (2): Constructing the Modern Left The Cultural Revolution of the Belle Epoque The Great War 1914-18 PART III: THE DECLINE OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC, 1919-40 France after the War 1919-28 France in the Depression 1929-35 The Popular Front 1936-7 Culture Between the Wars The Fall of France 1938-1940 PART IV: THE VICHY INTERLUDE AND ITS AFTERMATH, 1940-6 Vichy in Power, 1940-2 Resistance and Liberation, 1942-4 Liberated France 1944-6 Existentialism: Culture of the Resistance? PART V: THE FOURTH REPUBLIC, 1946-58 Vietnam War, Cold War, 1946-54 The 1950s - Of Coke and Culture The Algerian War Erupts, 1954-7 The Fall of the Fourth Republic,1958 PART VI: THE GAULLIST REPUBLIC, 1958-81 De Gaulle in Power, 1958-68 Cultural Explosion: New Theory, New Cinema, New Novel Social Explosion: May '68 The Gaullist Republic Under Pompidou and Giscard, 1969-81 PART VII: THE GAULLIST REPUBLIC AFTER DE GAULLE, 1981-95 'Socialist France'? 1981-8 Mitterrand in Decline, 1988-95 From Juppe to Jospin, 1995-2002 Toward Sarkozy's Republic, 2002-7 Conclusion: The End of 'the French Exception'? Notes Suggestions for Further Reading Index