ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the clearest aspects of the French case: the marks that key national traumas have left on contemporary political thought and behavior. It explores by setting out some general approaches through which one can examine the current effects of these national traumas, followed by some observations on their variable life cycles. The chapter looks at particular traumas that have had an impact on French political life during the Fifth Republic: the divisions of Vichy France, the repressed shock of the Algerian revolt, the upheavals of 1968, and even the French Revolution itself. French historians have begun to pay closer attention to the study of trauma. If both Algeria and the events of 1968 have thus receded in their impact on contemporary French life, the Revolution constitutes one of the strongest polarizing elements in French behavior. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the memory of 1789-1794 remains a source of dissent in French society and politics.
