A Concise History of FranceThis book provides a clear and well-informed guide to French history from the early middle ages, with the emergence of a strong state in the Ile-de-France, to the trente glorieuses following the Second World War and including the Mitterand presidency. It provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive study of French history available. Among the book's central themes are the relationship between state and society, the impact of war and such crucial questions as who possessed political power, how this power was used, and in whose interests and with what consequences. It takes account of the great figures of French history, including Philip Augustus, Henri IV, Louis XIV, the two Napoleons, Clemenceau and De Gaulle, and also the findings of modern social historians concerned with the life and death of ordinary people, the passing of generations, social structures, beliefs, and economic activity. This is a rich and entertaining guide to France for the student and general reader. |
Contents
List of plates | viii |
List of figures | xiii |
Acknowledgments | xv |
Introduction | 1 |
Medieval and early modern France | 11 |
POPULATION AND RESOURCES IN PREINDUSTRIAL FRANCE | 13 |
SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE | 26 |
SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN EARLY MODERN FRANCE | 47 |
The dual revolution modern and contemporary France | 79 |
REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE | 81 |
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY CONTINUITY AND CHANGE | 142 |
A TIME OF CRISIS 19141945 | 209 |
RECONSTRUCTION AND RENEWAL THE TRENTE GLORIEUSES AND BEYOND | 273 |
| 371 | |
| 377 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activity administration agricultural Algeria amongst ancien régime army Assembly cent century Chirac classes commitment communications Communists conservative constitutional continued created crisis decline defence dependent deputies early modern France economic effective effort elections electoral élites encouraged essentially established Estates-General European favour force Fourth Republic France François Mitterrand French Front National Gaulle Gaullists German groups growing growth impact income increased increasingly industrial king labour liberal Louis Louis XIV major mass means military minister Mitterrand mobilisation monarchy nevertheless nobility nobles organisation Orléanist Paris parlements parliamentary party peasants period Philip Augustus Photo Plate political popular Popular Front population production protection Radicals reduced reform regime remained represented Republic republican resistance restoration result revolution revolutionary royal rural sans-culottes seigneurial social Socialists society spite structures substantial Third Estate threat union sacrée urban Vichy votes whilst widespread workers