France Since 1945

Robert Gildea presents an ambitious and wide-ranging but succinct history of France from 1945 to 2024, which seeks to provide a sympathetic understanding of the forces that have shaped a country that is so close to Britain and yet so different. This third edition, following the second in 2002 and first in 1996, takes into account twenty more years of French history, history writing, and changing historical approaches, notably in colonial history and gender history.

France Since 1945 explores France's bid to restore political stability and international greatness after the Second World War which was marked by defeat and occupation, and the loss of greatness and crisis of democracy that began in the 1990s. These chapters are interleaved by eight thematic chapters, on the legacy of the Second World War and the Algerian War, which arguably continues in France to this day; on the economy and society; on French culture; and on gender and sexuality.