Just six or seven generations separate the France of Napoleon from that
of today's Fifth Republic. Yet the closeness of the past explored in
this book, and the resonances that reverberate down through the years,
are matched by transformations so profound that they can at times
obscure the powerful continuities.

The contributors to this
major new history of modern France are alive to these contrasting
elements and the tensions they induce. Within a clear chronological
framework, they aim to present diversity but in a way that is
comprehensible: to keep the colours and textures of the period but
within a recognizable political context. Proper place is given to social
and cultural history but always with a strong sense of the national and
international events swirling around an 'histoire de tous les jours', a
'history of the everyday'.