France From 1851 To The Present

A cultural history of France from a period of dominance in the mid-19th century to one of "decline" or "crisis" in the first few years of the third millennium. The first part (1851 to 1944) explores developments ranging from the transformation of Paris and the appearance of the colonial empire, to the construction of modern French society. The second part of the book follows the crisis of French universalism or of the "French exception" from the end of World War II to the contemporary period in which the "French model" has been increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of globalization, the Americanization of culture, decolonization and multiculturalism, among other developments.

This study is a cultural history of France from a period of dominant universalism in the mid-19th Century, to the post-modern era, when the "French exception" had entered a period of crisis.

Roger Célestin is Professor of French and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of From Cannibals to Radicals: Figures and Limits of Exoticism and co-editor of Beyond French Feminisms. He is co-founder and co-editor of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES.
Eliane DalMolin is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Cutting the Body: Representing Woman in Baudelaire's Poetry, Truffaut's Cinema, and Freud's Psychoanalysis and co-editor of Beyond French Feminisms. She is co-founder and co-editor of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES.