By most accounts France ‘held its own’ among the group of industrialised countries: its overall economic performance was ‘commendable’ – if not optimal – over the twentieth century. The fourth largest economy at the time of the Paris universal exhibition of 1900, it had more or less regained this position by the time of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. In terms of sheer economic potential, the demotion from the pedestal of ‘great nation’ had occurred already in the nineteenth century. In terms of individual incomes, the French have managed to keep their living standards in the league of advanced countries, although their level of disposable income did not catch up with that of the Americans (and other non-European advanced countries) until the 1970s. For the greater part of the century, therefore, although nominally part of the ‘rich world’, the French enjoyed living standards markedly inferior to those across the Atlantic. The leap into the affluent society took place during the first postwar period (1945–73), affectionately known to the French as ‘Les Trente Glorieuses’. In terms of demography, economic make-up and wealth, this period constitutes the main watershed and would invite us to split our examination of the century down the middle (all the more so as French ‘capitalism’ then took a marked turn towards ‘socialism’). But as much as for the emergence of the consumer society, the twentieth century may be remembered in future for the massive destruction of human life and property in two world wars.