Writing a book is perforce a collaborative effort – in this case doubly so, since the book as it now stands grew out of a Ph.D. dissertation begun nearly a decade ago. Accordingly, the end result, flawed as it may be, would not have been possible without the input and support of others: first, from those involved in supervising the dissertation and guiding it to its completion and, second, from colleagues and friends who, along the way, helped me to clarify and perfect the arguments set out in these pages. Among the former, my gratitude extends to my thesis adviser, David Calleo of the SAIS European Studies Department, whose thoughtful insights undoubtedly made the end result better than it would otherwise have been. Likewise, Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, then of Sciences Po-Paris and now of Rutgers, also deserves a special mention. I would like to thank her for agreeing to work with me on this project from its inception and for her dedication in overseeing it through the dissertation stage. I benefited enormously from her extensive knowledge of the French Far Right, and I know the book would be much the poorer had she not assisted me. Third, I am indebted to Erik Jones of the SAIS Bologna Center, who was instrumental in helping give shape to my arguments and for offering invaluable advice and support when things – as they inevitably at times did – got rough. Finally, I am also grateful to Sunil Khilnani of SAIS and Martin Schain of New York University, whose insights were of great value to me as I distilled the dissertation into a book.

Beyond the contributions of my dissertation committee, the book has been immeasurably enriched by discussion with professors, colleagues, and friends. Conversations with Gérard Conac, Kendall Myers, Bruce Parrott, Gilbert Khadiagala, and Larry Diamond were invaluable in helping me to define this project and bring it into focus. Likewise, interviews with René Rémond, Nonna Mayer, Guy Michelat, Gérard Grunberg, and Jean-Luc Parodi enabled me to iron out some of the theoretical difficulties presented by this project and to specify the methodological approach I would adopt. Particular thanks go to Alain Lancelot who, as former director of Sciences Po-Paris, was extremely generous with his time and helped me to secure interviews with his colleagues.

More prosaically but no less importantly, I also greatly benefited from discussions with my peers in the SAIS European studies department and beyond, who turned out to be wonderful sources of both advice and moral support. Here, I would like to thank in no particular order of importance Jan-Martin Witte, Matthias Matthijs, Christopher Chivvis, Andy Wolfe, and Timo Behr. Likewise, I am grateful to Mitchell Orenstein, who offered great advice in terms of editing the dissertation and preparing it for submission to a university press. Finally, I want to express special gratitude to my colleagues in the ITAM International Studies department and thank them not only for their warm reception but also for their understanding and encouragement as the book entered the editing stage. Of course, despite the best efforts of the aforementioned, any inaccuracies, omissions, or distortions contained herein are my responsibility alone.

In turn, a project such as this would not have been possible without various forms of institutional support. A predoctoral research fellowship from the Florence Gould Memorial Foundation in Summer 2003 and a Bourse Chateaubriand from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004–5 allowed me to conduct invaluable field research in France at the dissertation stage. Likewise, I was sustained for the first three years of the Ph.D. by a doctoral fellowship from SAIS, without which I would never have gotten to the point of writing the dissertation on which this book is based, let alone survived.

The institutional support I have received extends far beyond funding, however. First off, I should like to thank the respective staffs at the Library of Congress, the library of Sciences Po-Paris, and especially the SAIS library. The staff of the SAIS library in particular displayed exemplary patience in dealing with me and proved tireless in ferreting out obscure titles from libraries I never even knew existed. Similarly, I would like to express my gratitude to my editors at Cambridge University Press, Lewis Bateman, Anne Lovering Rounds, and Brian MacDonald, and to commend them for their advice and sensitivity in helping me to navigate the rigors of the publishing process. Finally, special thanks go to my research assistant, Arturo Mendoza, as well as to Jon Hopwood, for their assistance in helping me to negotiate the final harried stages of the editing process.

A very heartfelt thanks must also go to my family and especially to my parents. Their abiding support for and interest in this project cannot be overstated. Merci, chers parents!! By the same token, I should like to remember my late grandfather Eugène de Prat of Pont-de-Briques. He inspired me to write this book by exemplifying many of the political orientations and cultural traits that are its principal focus. And lastly, though he was not directly associated with it, I am deeply indebted to my old friend and maître Jacques Guicharnaud, who passed away while I was in France doing research for this project. I regret not having had a chance to tell him that, through his generosity of spirit and of mind, as well as the genuine affection he showed his students, he more than anyone traced out the academic path on which I would one day embark. I only hope I can follow in his example.

Last but not least, I should like to thank my own family, beginning with my wife, Natasha. Without her patience and support, I would never have been able to see this project through. She sustained me in good times and bad, and offered encouragement when I most needed it. For this I am deeply, truly in her debt. Also, I wish to thank my children, Clara and Octavio. By a series of fortuitous omens, Clara’s arrival coincided with the finishing stages of the dissertation, while Octavio’s barely preceded the manuscript’s acceptance. In this sense, they guided the book’s completion, and it is to them that it is dedicated.