5AAFF251 Modern French History
Class Schedule and Bibliography
1. Introduction: this class will present an overview of the themes and events which
will dominate the course. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between
social and economic change and ideological divisions in French society.
Suggested reading
Maurice Agulhon et al, Histoire de la France Rurale (Paris, 1976)
J-J. Carré, P. Dubois, E. Malinvaud, French Economic Growth (London, 1976)
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Political Traditions in Modern France (Oxford, 1994)
Pierre Nora (ed.), Les Lieux de mémoire (3 vols.) (Paris, 1984)
Ezra Suleiman, Elites in French Society: the Politics of Survival (1978)
Alain Touraine, La Conscience ouvrière (Paris, 1966)
Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen (London, 1976)
Gordon Wright, Rural Revolution in France: The Peasantry in the Twentieth
Century (Stanford, 1964)
Questions for discussion: Was inter-war France a backward country? What were
the principal political divisions of the inter-war period? How did economic crisis
affect French society in the 1930s? Why was political life so polarised?
2. Fascism and the inter-war leagues: this class will examine the extent of the
fascist threat in the wake of the events of February 6 1934 when right-wing leagues
laid siege to the Assemblée Nationale.
Suggested reading
Pierre Birnbaum, La France aux Français: Histoire des Haines Nationalistes (Paris,
1993)
Philippe Burrin, La Dérive fasciste (Paris, 1986)
Jean-Paul Brunet, Jacques Doriot: du communisme au fascisme (Paris, 1986)
Julian Jackson, The Politics of Depression in France 1932 - 1936 (Cambridge,
1985)
Robert Soucy, French Fascism: the First Wave 1924 - 1933 (New Haven, 1986)
- French Fascism: the Second Wave 1933-1939 (Yale, 1995)
Eugen Weber, Action Française: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth Century
France (Stanford, 1962)
Questions for discussion: To what extent may we talk of a fascist tradition in interwar France? What kind of a threat did 6 February 1934 pose to the Republic? What
role did Action Française play during the February events? How effectively was the
Republic defended?
3. The Left and the Popular Front: this lecture will assess the record of the left-wing
coalition, formed in response to the rise of the extreme right, which won power in
1936 as the Popular Front.
Suggested reading
Jacques Danos and Marcel Gibelin, June '36: Class Struggle and the Popular Front
in France (London,1986)
Daniel Guérin, Front Populaire, Revolution Manquee (Paris, 1997)
Serge Halimi, Sisyphe est fatigué: les échecs de la gauche au pouvoir (Paris, 1993)
Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France (Cambridge, 1988)
Georges Lefranc, Histoire du Front Populaire (1934-1938) (Paris, 1965)
H. Noguères, La Vie quotidienne en France au Temps du Front Populaire: 19351938 (Paris, 1987)
G. Ross, Workers and Communists in France: from Popular Front to
Eurocommunism (California, 1982)
D. Tartakowsky, Le Front Populaire: la Vie est a Nous (Paris, 1996)
B. Touchard, Front Populaire 1936 (Paris, 1997)
Questions for discussion: What did the Popular Front stand for? To what extent did
the Popular Front achieve its aims? Why did the Popular Front fall? What was its
legacy?
4. The Vichy regime: this lecture will examine the establishment and nature of the
Vichy regime, assessing the reasons for the French defeat in 1940, the ideological
influences on the regime and the stages in its development which saw it move
towards greater collaboration with the Nazis.
Suggested reading
Jean-Pierre Azéma, 1940, l'année terrible (Paris, 1990)
Roger Bourderon and Serge Wolikow, La Négotiation Eté 1940. Crise au PCF
(Paris, 2001)
J.P. Cointet, Histoire de Vichy (Paris, 1996)
Stanley Hoffman, Decline or Renewal? France since the 1930s (New York, 1974)
- In Search of France (New York, 1965)
A. Horne, To Lose a Battle: France 1940 (London, 1978)
Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 (Oxford, 2001)
A.S. Milward, The New Order and the French Economy (Oxford, 1970)
Jacques Nobécourt, Une histoire politique de l'armeée, 1919 - 1942. De Pétain à
Pétain (Paris, 1967)
Robert Paxton, Vichy France. Old Guard and New Order (New York, 1973)
R. Paxton and M.Marrus, Vichy France and the Jews (New York, 1981)
Guy Rossi-Landi, La drôle de guerre, la vie politique en France, 2 septembre 1939 10 mai 1940 (Paris, 1971Richard Vinen, The Unfree French (Yale, 2006)
Questions for discussion: Was France’s defeat primarily military or political? How
can the popularity of Pétain in 1940 be explained? To what extent was Vichy
responsible for the crimes of the occupation period?
5. Collaboration. This lecture will look at the origins and role of organised Nazi
sympathizers during the occupation of France.
Suggested reading
See above ('The Vichy Régime'), and:
Philippe Burin, La Dérive Fasciste: Doriot, Déat, Bergery (Paris, 1986)
Laurent Lemire, L'homme de l'ombre, Georges Albertini 1911 - 1983 (Paris, 1990)
Bertram Gordon, Collaborationism in France during the Second World War (Cornel,
1980)
Pascal Ory, Les Collaborateurs (Paris, 1977)
Dietrich Wolf, Jacques Doriot (Paris, 1969)
Questions for discussion: Was collaboration pragmatic or ideological? What was
the relationship between the Nazis and French collaborationist groups? What kind
of influence did political collaborators have over the Vichy regime?
6. Resistance. This class will look at the different factions which made up the
Resistance movement.
Suggested reading
See above, and:
J.P. Azéma, J.P. Rioux and A. Prost, Les Communistes Francais de Munich a
Chateaubriant (Paris, 1987)
Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs (London, 1955-60)
M.R.D. Foot, Resistance (London, 1976)
Henri Frenay, The night will end (London, 1976)
H. Gough and J. Horne, De Gaulle and Twentieth Century France (London, 1994)
H.R. Kedward, Resistance in Vichy France (Oxford, 1978)
H.R. Kedward and Austen, Vichy France and the Resistance: Culture and Ideology
(Brighton, 1985)
J.F. Sweets, The Politics of Resistance in France (Illinois, 1978)
J.F. Sweets, Choices in Vichy France (Oxford, 1986)
Questions for discussion: How can the role of the Communist Party between 1940
and 1945 be understood? How effective was organised resistance in the Northern
and Southern zones? How influential were De Gaulle and his supporters in the
Resistance? What did the Liberation achieve?
7. The Fourth Republic: this lecture will examine the issues which shaped the postwar period. Particular attention will be paid to attempts to rehabilitate French
national identity, the impact of the Cold War, economic reconstruction and the rise
of Poujadism.
Suggested reading
Malcolm Anderson, Conservative Politics in France (London, 1974)
Serge Bernstein and J.J. Becker, L'anticommunisme en France (Paris, 1987)
Serge Berstein and Pierre Milza, Histoire de la France au XXe Siècle, 1945-1958
(Paris, 1981)
Dominique Borne, Petits-bourgeois en révolte? Le Movement Poujade (Paris,
1977)
H. Bouchardeau, Pas d'histoire, les femmes (Paris, 1977)
P. Buton, Les Lendemains qui Dechantent: le Parti Communiste Francais à la
Liberation (Paris, 1993)
J. Cambell, 'Le Mouvement Poujade', in Parliamentary Affairs, 10, 1987.
Jean Charlot, Le gaullisme d'opposition, 1946 - 1958 (Paris, 1983)
Colin Dyer, Population and Society in Twentieth Century France (London, 1978)
Patrick Fridenson and André Strauss (eds.), Le capitalisme Français (Paris, 1987)
Roger Eatwell, 'Poujadism' in P. Cerny (ed.), The Politics of Protest in
Contemporary French Society (London, 1982)
Stanley Hoffmann, Decline or Renewal? France since the 1930s (New York, 1974)
- In Search of France (New York, 1965)
Stanley Hoffmann, Le Mouvement Poujade (Paris, 1956)
Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle the Rebel (London, 1990)
Herbert Lottman, The People's Anger, Justice and Revenge in Post-Liberation
France (London, 1982)
Alan Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe 1945 - 1951 (London, 1984)
Jean Monnet, Mémoires (New York, 1978)
Peter Novick, The Resistance versus Vichy: The Purge of Collaborators in
Liberated France (New York, 1968)
Jean-Pierre Rioux, La France de la IVe République (2 vols) (Paris, 1980)
Henri Rousso, Le syndrome de Vichy (Paris, 1987)
Jean Touchard, `Bibliographie et chronologie du poujadisme, in Revue française de
Sciences Politiques (1956)
Andrew Shennan, Rethinking France (Oxford, 1989)
Philip Williams, Wars ,Plots and Scandals in Post-war France (Cambridge, 1970)
Steven Zdadtny, Artisans in 20th century France (Oxford, 1989)
Questions for discussion: How did the Cold War affect French politics? How did
economic modernisation affect French society in the immediate post-war period?
What kind of movement was Poujadisme? To what extent may the Fourth Republic
be considered a success or failure?
8. Decolonization: this lecture will look at the history of French colonialism and
examine French withdrawal from Indo-China, Morocco and Tunisia and at the
Algerian War.
Suggested reading
Henri Alleg, The question (Paris, 1958) [on the use of torture in Algeria].
Georges Bidault, Resistance (London, 1965)
Anthony Clayton, The Wars of French Decolonization (New York, 1994)
H. Hamon and P. Rotman, Les Porteurs de Valise (Paris, 1983)
Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (London, 1987)
Ronald Irving, The First Indo-China War (London, 1975)
Gregoire Madjarian, La Question Coloniale et la politique du Parti Communiste
Français 1944 - 1947 (Paris, 1977)
Jacques Marseille, Empire colonial et capitalisme français: histoire d'un divorce
(Paris, 1984)
D.B. Marshall, The French Colonial Myth and Constitution Making in the Fourth
Republic (New Haven, 1973)
Marc Michel, 'Decolonization: French Attitudes and Policies, 1944-46' in France in
the World ed. P. Morris and S.Williams (special issue of Modern and Contemporary
France, 1985)
Edward Mortimer, France and the Africans. 1940 - 1960: A Political History
(London, 1969)
J-P. Rioux, (ed.), La Guerre d'Algérie et les Français (Paris, 1990)
P.C. Sorum , Intellectuals and Decolonization in France (North Carolina, 1977)
B. Tricot, Les Sentiers de la Paix: Algérie 1958 - 1962 (Paris, 1972)
Questions for discussion: What gave rise to the anti-colonial movements of
independence? What did they achieve? Why was withdrawal from Algeria so
bloody? Was French colonialism a success?
9. The Algeria crisis. This lecture will discuss the reasons for the collapse of the
Fourth Republic, the return of De Gaulle and the escalation of the Algerian crisis.
Suggested reading
John S. Ambler, The French Army in Politics 1945 - 1962 (Ohio, 1966)
Merry and Serge Bromberger, Les treize complots du treize mai (Paris, 1959)
W.B. Cohen, `The Legacy of Empire: the Algerian Connection', in Journal of
Contemporary History 15, 1980
Frank Giles, The Locust Years: the Story of the Fourth French Republic, 1946-1958
(New York, 1994)
Alexander Harrison, Challenging de Gaulle. The OAS and Counter-revolution in
Algeria 1954 - 1962 (New York, 1989)
A. Heggoy, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Algeria (Indiana, 1972)
Paul Henissart, Wolves in the City. The Death of French Algeria (New York, 1971)
G. Kelly, Lost Sodiers: The French Army and Empire in Crisis, 1947 - 1962
(Cambridge, Mass. 1965)
Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle: the Ruler 1945-1970 (London, 1991)
Daniel Leconte, Les Pieds Noirs. Histoire et portrait d'une communauté (Paris,
1978)
P. Nora, L'OAS parle (Paris, 1964)
- Les Français d'Algérie (Paris, 1961)
Claude Pillat, La Liquidation (Paris, 1972)
John Talbot, The War without a Name. France in Algeria. 1954 - 1962 (London,
1981)
Questions for discussion: Why did the Algerian war bring about a crisis of
institutions? Why did the IVth Republic fall? How can the army’s role in 1958 be
understood? Was De Gaulle a Bonapartist?
10. The Fifth Republic and May 68: this lecture will look at opposition to De Gaulle
both in the form of the student protests and strikes of May 1968, assessing the
demands of both students and workers and the response of political parties of
government and opposition to the revolt.
Suggested reading
Roger Absalom, France: the May Events (London, 1971)
P. Birnbaum, The Heights of Power (New York, 1983)
B. Brown, Protest in Paris (New Jersey, 1974)
David Caute, The Year of the Barricades '68 (London, 1988)
Michel Crozier, La Société bloquée (Paris, 1972)
Andrew Feenberg and Jim Freedman (eds) When Poetry Ruled the Streets: The
French May Events of 1968 (New York, 2001)
J. Howorth and P. Cerny (ed.), Elites in France: Origins, Reproduction and Power
(London, 1981)
Richard Johnson, The French Communist Party versus the Students: Revolutionary
Politics in May-June 1968) (New Haven, 1972)
Richard Kuisel, Capitalism and the State in Modern France (Cambridge, 1981)
François Mitterrand, Le Coup d'Etat Permanent (Paris, 1964)
Angelo Quattrochi and Tom Nairn, The Beginning of the End (London, 1968)
Kristin Ross, May ’68 and its Afterlives (Chicago, 2002)
Ezra Suleiman, Elites in French Society: the Politics of Survival (1978)
Jean Touchard, Le Gaullisme, 1940 - 1969 (Paris, 1978)
Alain Tourraine, Le Mouvement du mai ou le communisme utopique (paris, 1968)
P. Viansson-Ponté, Histoire de la République Gaullienne, vol 2 (Paris, 1971)
Questions for discussion: Why did the May revolt take place? Did the May events
really threaten the established order? How did the political establishment survive
May 68? Did the events of May fit a pattern of protest in modern France?
11. Conclusions: this class will draw together the main issues of the course.