The Fourth Republic, 1944–1958
The Fourth Republic, 1944–1958
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9780521389167The combination of political uncertainty, external crisis and internal economic expansion that characterized the French Fourth Republic renders the period 1944–1958 one of unusual complexity, and in this masterly survey Jean-Pierre Rioux unravels its often torturous rise and fall. Growing consumerism and demographic change were the most striking manifestations of the successful reconstruction of the war-ravaged French economy, yet the political foundations of the Fourth Republic became ever more fragile, as a series of unstable and short-lived ministries proved incapable of confronting the twin challenge presented by domestic indifference and bitter, often violent, interference from French colonist abroad. When, in 1958, the Algerian crisis threatened to provoke a full-scale military coup, the existing political orders swiftly crumbled, its authority either derided or ignored. The coexistence of prosperity and chronic instability is not the least intriguing aspect of the history of the Fourth Republic, and Professor Rioux's duly rounded account gives due weight to the cultural and social context in which such a paradox became possible.
Product details
September 1987Hardback
9780521252386
548 pages
228 × 152 × 40 mm
0.912kg
Replaced by 9780521389167
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Table of Contents
- List of maps
- Foreword
- List of abbreviations
- Part I: The needs of the moment, 1944–46
- 1. Victory
- 2. Survival
- 3. The purges
- 4. Restoration
- 5. Production
- 6. France in the world
- Part II: The republic of the lesser evil, 1946–52
- 7. The parties take charge
- 8. The double fracture of 1947
- 9. France under the American umbrella
- 10. The third force
- 11. Reconstruction and modernisation
- Part III: The republic in decline, 1952–58
- 12. Governing without choosing
- 13. The impossible renewal
- 14. The Algerian snare
- 15. The collapse
- Part IV: Ambitious France
- 16. The stimulus of growth
- 17. An unequal prosperity
- 18. The fluid society?
- 19. Towards the 'polyculture'
- Conclusion
- Chronology
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index.
