List of Maps .- Preface .- Acknoweldgements .- Abbreviations .- French Regimes since 1789 .- Maps .- 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.