131-081 France 1870-1950: Culture and Society

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of First Year History, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Subject Description

This subject will cover French history from the founding of the Third Republic and its establishment during the 1870s, to the re-establishment of the Republic after World War II. Students will explore the emergence of a republican culture, its failure to resolve social problems, its downfall and replacement by the Vichy régime in 1940, and how the resolution of social issues enabled the Fourth and Fifth Republics to endure. Students will discuss the class and gendered nature of the evolution and culture of the republican project. Students should also become familiar with topics such as: World War I, the position of women between the wars, the struggle against fascism, the Popular Front and its failure, and the Vichy régime and the French holocaust. We will conclude with an effort to understand the nature of the republican settlement that has endured since World War II.