Second and third year undergraduate courses

France since 1870: Fascism, Communism and Democracy

HT520 / HT530

This course covers the political, social and to a lesser extent, economic history of France from 1870 to the present. Throughout this period, French politics and society have been characterised by deep divisions originating from the clash between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries in the 1790s. These have led to periodic bouts of considerable turbulence, from the Paris commune and the Dreyfus affair to the events of May 1968 and the recent uprisings in the Banlieus.

It will be emphasised that France’s slow industrialisation meant that in the late 19th century the principal divisions were between republicans and anti-republicans (Legitimists, Orleanists, Bonapartists) and between secularising anti-clericals and supporters of the Catholic Church. We will examine the extent to which these divisions reflected the gulf between the towns and the countryside. In the 20th century the older divisions were overlaid by those between a more class-based right and left, which in the wake of the first world war and the Russian revolution, often took the form of Fascism and Communism. These movements will be given particular attention in the course.

The Second World War exposed all the latent tensions in French society as the Vichy Régime implemented an authoritarian, clerical and uncompromisingly anti-Semitic programme in alliance with Nazi Germany, but was faced by the emergence of a French Resistance containing both Communists and patriotic conservative supporters of General De Gaulle. The historiographical controversies about the extent of French collaboration will be addressed. The outbreak of the cold war prevented the consolidation of any lasting consensus based on anti-Fascist unity around a parliamentary republic. In this period the ardently pro-Moscow French Communist Party (PCF) marginalised the pro-NATO and pro EEC socialists. The Fourth Republic was weakened by prolonged colonial wars in Vietnam and even more importantly Algeria, the latter of which enabled De Gaulle to impose the Fifth Republic, whose strongly presidential emphasis has shaped French politics down to the present day. The events of May 1968 and the tactical genius of Francois Mitterrand both played a role in the long term decline of the PCF and the re-emergence of the socialists as the principal rivals to Gaullism over the last 25 years, although recent elections and referenda indicate the continuing importance of a more fragmented extreme left opposed to Anglo-American Neo-Liberalism. On the other side of the spectrum the legacy of the anti-Dreyfusards and the Vichyites is crucial to understanding the Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen which has capitalised on the tension aroused by mass immigration from France’s former African colonies.

Mode of assessment

Three hour written examination.

Learning outcomes

LEVEL 2

Students will gain a broad and continuous knowledge of recent French political and social

history. In addition, they will engage with wider issues concerning the impact of social, economic and political change in the 19th and 20th centuries. They will also gain an understanding both of the role of political ideologies and of the contested nature of national identity in an historical context. They will be introduced to some of the primary sources in translation, and to an appropriate analytical approach to these.

LEVEL 3

In addition to the learning outcomes for level 2 students, level three students will gain an advanced knowledge of the historiography of modern France, attain a greater knowledge of and capacity to deploy those primary sources available in English translation and develop the capacity for independent historical analysis.

Introductory reading list

Robert Gildea, France Since 1945
Julian Jackson France: the Dark Years 1940-1944
Rod Kedward, La Vie en Bleu: France and the French Since 1900
Roger Magraw, France 1815-1914: The Bourgeois Century
James McMillan, Twentieth Century France
Charles Sowerwine, France since 1870
Robert Tombs, France 1814-1914