ABSTRACT
Like other countries in Europe during the 1930s, France was confronted by two major problems: how to cope with the economic and social consequences of the Great Depression and how to cope with the threat of fascism from both within France and abroad. Between 1936 and 1938 France's response to these problems was the Popular Front experiment, an attempt to form a broad-left coalition government that would introduce policies to combat the consequences of the depression and to confront the domestic and foreign fascist threats. Maurice Thorez saw a Popular Front government as a preparation for the seizure of power by the proletariat; and he was determined that no Communist should become a minister in a Popular Front government. The Popular Front was very divisive, tending to polarize French public opinion between the Right and the Left and to politicize many aspects of French life.
