In the fifty years since the end of the Second World War, France has had to deal with the legacy of the German occupation, the effects of the Algerian war and the rise of Islam, and more recently the loss of French domination of Europe following the reunification of Germany, the effect of the European Union, the single currency and so on. Chapters cover: Crisis of Empire; Crisis in the State; Echoes of the Occupation; Thirty Glorious, Twenty Inglorious Years; The One and Indivisible Republic?; Cultural Revolutions; The Republic of the Centre; France in Search of a World Role and The Challenges Facing France.