ABSTRACT
There are few overviews of contemporary French society in English. Of most use, though first published in 1982, is L. Hantrais, Contemporary French Society (Macmillan, 1989). A companion to volumes on French politics and the French economy, this contains chapters on demographic features, the family, social welfare, education and leisure, and contains a selection of supporting texts in French as well as a limited number of language exercises. More recent, and with a more socio-economic perspective, is C. Flockton and E. Kofman, France (Paul Chapman, 1989) which is particularly strong on spatial questions and the discussion of social inequalities. D. Hanley et al, Contemporary France: Politics and Society since 1945, 2nd edn (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984) contains much of interest and use, although the contents need updating, and it is particularly strong on the politics of education. It may, however, be too detailed for the average undergraduate. G. Ross (ed.), The Mitterrand Experiment: Continuity and Change in Modern France (Polity, 1987), though it is mainly devoted to questions of political economy, nevertheless contains essays of interest on cultural and educational policy, while J, Hollifield and G. Ross (eds), Searching for the New France (Routledge, 1991) includes surveys of the welfare state, education, immigration, trade unions and the role of intellectuals in public life. It also contains an excellent bibliography. H. Mendras and A. Cole, Social Change in Modern France (Cambridge University Press, 1991) is an excellent, fairly recent essay on social trends based on Mendras’s French work, while some of the chapters in M. Maclean, The Mitterrand Years: Legacy and Evaluation (Macmillan, 1998) may be usefully consulted. Similarly, J. Howorth and G. Ross (eds), Contemporary France: A Review of Interdisciplinary Studies (Frances Pinter, 1987) was an annual publication which may usefully be consulted for essays of topical interest. There are also a number of now classic socio-historical and socio-anthropological studies of France which provide fascinating background reading. Among these must be mentioned L. Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse (Harvard University Press, 1957), S. Hoffman et ah, In Search of France (Harvard University Press, 1963), T. Zeldin, France 1848-1945, 2 vols (Clarendon Press, 1973-6), T. Zeldin, The French (Collins, 1983) and E. Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen (Chatto & Windus, 1979).
