The French Economy in the Twentieth Century

This new textbook examines the spectacular transformation that the French economy has undergone over the past century. Jean-Pierre Dormois offers a general introduction to the major trends as well as recent transformations of French society, and an overview of modern economic development. He tackles the key themes associated with the French 'path of economic development' - Malthusianism, exceptionalism and Colbertism. Other chapters address standard economic issues on the role of human capital formation, economic institutions and openness to the rest of the world. The author examines and interprets trends and features of the period as a whole, and sets them in a wider European framework. This book offers students a helpful and concise summary of recent research, and presents a uniquely synthetic view of the French economy in the twentieth century. It will have broad appeal for students and teachers of French and of European history and economics.

1. The end of French exceptionalism; 2. French economic performance in international perspective; 3. France and the wider world; 4. The changing guises of Colbertism; 5. The institutions of French capitalism; 6. Labour: the French at work; 7. Tilling and grazing: lifeblood or strain?; 8. Industrialisation, de-industrialisation, post-industrialisation; Conclusion.

This textbook surveys the spectacular transformation that the French economy has undergone over the past century. It offers a general introduction to the long-term as well as more recent transformations of the French economy and surveys the major themes associated with French economic development: exceptionalism, Malthusianism and statism.

Jean-Pierre Dormois, a former Knox Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge, is currently Professor of Economic History at the University Marc-Bloch in Strasbourg. Among his books are L'économie française face à la concurrence britannique (Paris 1997) and The British Industrial Decline (ed.), (London 1998).