In composing this work I have accumulated a number of debts which it is a pleasure as well as a duty to record here. For permission to use manuscript collections I am grateful to MM. François Paul-Boncour and Jean Cahen-Salvador. I am indebted also to the librarian of the Conseil d'Etat, and to M. Louis Fougère, sometime Conseiller d'Etat, who assisted me in the use of the archives of the Conseil. I have a more diffuse sense of obligation to the staff of the many libraries I have used: principally the Bodleian Library, Nuffield College library, the British Library, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.

My scholarly debts are also numerous. Without the inspiration of José Harris, my tutor in the modern period at St Catherine's College, Oxford, I doubt whether I should have become a professional historian at all. Robert Gildea supervised the D.Phil. thesis on which this book is based, and I owe him much for the sharply critical eye that he passed over my work in its various stages. Vincent Wright, more than anyone, sustained my confidence in the value of the project. Larry Siedentop and Jack Hayward examined the thesis, and made helpful suggestions with a view to its publication. And at various times I have benefited from discussions with M. Roger Errera, Professor Bernard Rudden, Mr Nevil Johnson, Professor Tony Judt, Professor Anne Stevens and others.