Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides an integrated account of French political experience, explaining three key features: the role of political ideas, the nature of political movements, and the significance of history in creating and sustaining divisions among political groups. It has chapters on the roles of intellectuals, the ideologies of republicanism, clericalism, and nationalism, and the functions of the state. The last four chapters examine the political traditions of liberalism, socialism, Gaullism, and Communism.
