This book, originally published in 1991, assesses how attitudes, political orientations and social values changed during the five decades after the Second World War. The case studies in the book focus on key 'sites' in political culture: in France, on the extreme right, the cinema, the impact of media personalities and changes of political discourse; in Germany, on the decline of regional identities, the emergence of specific issues and the concern of political parties with the effectiveness of language. This interdisciplinary study provides new insights into the way French and German people see themselves.

Introduction 1. French Political Culture and Republicanism 2. Socio-Economic Change and Political Culture in West Germany 3. The Politics of Disaffection: France in the 1980s 4. Language and Politics: The Case of Neo-Gaullism 5. Celebrities in Politics: Simone Signoret and Yves Montand 6. Contemporary French Cinema and French Political Culture: The 'New'Hegemony 7. Political Allegiance and Social Change: The Case of Workers in the Ruhr 8. Political culture Change and Party Organisation: The SPD and the Second 'Fräuleinwunder' 9. The Battle of Semantics; The West German Christian Democrats' Linguistic Strategies Post-1973

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