Just six or seven generations separate the France of Napoleon from that of today's Fifth Republic. Yet the closeness of the past explored in this book, and the resonances that reverberate down through the years, are matched by transformations so profound that they can at times obscure the powerful continuities.

The contributors to this major new history of modern France are alive to these contrasting elements and the tensions they induce. Within a clear chronological framework, they aim to present diversity but in a way that is comprehensible: to keep the colours and textures of the period but within a recognizable political context. Proper place is given to social and cultural history but always with a strong sense of the national and international events swirling around an 'histoire de tous les jours', a 'history of the everyday'.