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Writing a short book with no endnotes has made me painfully aware of my debt to my profession and my peers. There is only one author on the title page, but this feels like a collaborative effort. Most of my arguments have been built on the scholarship of others, and I can claim very little credit for the facts and statistics I cite. For this reason, I make no apologies for the lengthy list of acknowledgements; there is no other way for me to express the depth of my gratitude to friends, colleagues and mentors for their help along the way.

I took my first steps into the field of French history thanks to Robert Tombs; his careful criticism and vast knowledge remain an inspiration to me today. I was also lucky to be supported at various points in my very early career by Sudhir Hazareesingh and Samuel Moyn. Through my research, I have met a constellation of brilliant people who have written about France and the French. These include Christian Amalvi, Arthur Asseraf, Serge Audier, Maurice Aymard, Fiona Barclay Ed Baring, Alessandra Bitumi, Alison Carrol, Sara Casella-Colombeau, Herrick Chapman, Gwendal Châton, Sung-Eun Choi, Michael Scott Christofferson, Jackie Clarke, Martin Conway, Luis de Miranda, Mario del Pero, Nicolas Delalande, Richard Drayton, Claire Eldridge, Angéline Escafré-Dublet, Olivier Estèves, Charlotte Faucher, Mayanthi Fernando, Marion Fontaine, Stefanos Geroulanos, Robert Gildea, Jordan Girardin, Daniel Gordon, Felicity Green, Abdellali Hajjat, Ruth Harris, Nick Hewlett, Alistair Hunter, Julian Jackson, Peter Jackson, Chloe Jeffries, Jeremy Jennings, Emmanuel Jousse, Jonathan Judaken, John Keiger, Raphaëlle Khan, Nadia Kiwan, Cécile Laborde, Sonja Levsen, Itay Lotem, Kate Marsh, Hugh McDonnell, James McDougall, Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, Ed Naylor, Alex Paulin-Booth, Timothy Peace, Thomas Pierret, Christophe Premat, Robert Priest, Christophe Prochasson, Malika Rahal, Camille Robcis, Noah Rosenblum, Yann Scioldo-Zürcher, Berny Sèbe, Jennifer Sessions, Jim Shields, Andrea Smith, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Iain Stewart, Brian Sudlow, Vincent Tiberj, Karine Varley, Natalya Vince and Laurent Warlouzet. Traces of my conversations and exchanges with these people – some fleeting, others lasting for years – can be found throughout this book. A special mention to Michael Behrent, who agreed to read the entire manuscript in record time. As always, his interventions made me think and write better.

Almost all the arguments I make in the following chapters have been tested on my students at Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh. In particular, the overarching structure was elaborated over many years in my Edinburgh course ‘France since 1940’. Most of my students will never know that their questions, queries and frustrations were the foundation of this book. Some of them, however, deserve to be mentioned by name because their writing, research and curiosity helped me think through the big themes I have tried to address here. Thanks, then, to Rory Castle, Tom Cooper, Micaela Dempsey, Gigi Ettedgui, Lucy Gaynor, Joe Gazeley, Julia König, Charlotte Krass, Nathan Low, May Robson, Ted Sale, Patrick Soulsby and Bronagh Walsh for confirming that teachers should always listen to what their students have to say.

I owe a great deal to the various institutions that have looked after me. As a student, I was extremely fortunate to be associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, Rice University, Harvard University and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. I was subsequently employed by Balliol College and the University of Oxford, and St John’s College, Cambridge. Wherever I went, I was treated generously by peers, colleagues and administrative staff. I have been at the University of Edinburgh since 2013, and here too I have been fortunate to be a part of a community of devoted and thoughtful scholars. Of all the people I have met in Scotland, I am especially grateful to Stephan Malinowski, with whom I have had many penetrating and thought-provoking arguments about France and Europe. During my time at Edinburgh, some of my research on France has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant number ES/N011171/1, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council under grant number AH/P008720/1.

In recent years, I have shared my ideas about contemporary France in front of inquisitive and knowledgeable audiences at the French History seminar at the Institute for Historical Research in London; the Centre for European and International Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth; the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Birmingham; the Fondation Jean-Jaurès in Paris; the University of St Andrews; the University of Oxford; the Center for European Studies at Harvard University; the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at New York University; the Middle East Study Group at the University of Hull; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg; the Goethe Institut Kultursymposium in Weimar; the Franco-Scottish Society; the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Paris; the Université de Montpellier-III; the University of Aberdeen; Stockholm University; the Institut Français d’Écosse; and the Université de Lille-III. My sincerest thanks to everyone for their comments and feedback, all of which have found their way into this book somehow.

Finally, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my small but devoted family. Without my wife Akhila and my mother Farzana, I would not have been able to complete this – or any other – book. Only they know how important they are to my intellectual and mental health. This book is dedicated to my father, the first French person I ever met, and to little Adémar, who will soon have to grapple with some paradoxes of his own.