The New France - A Society In Transition 1945-1977

The New France – A Society in Transition 1945–1977 (1981) by John Ardagh (Pelican Books)

Ah, France. Land of wine, strikes, existentialists in smoky cafés, and a country that somehow stumbled from the rubble of WWII into the wild experiment of the Fifth Republic. John Ardagh’s The New France is a hefty but engaging portrait of a nation reinventing itself between 1945 and the late ’70s, covering everything from politics and industry to fashion, cinema, and the endless grumblings of French intellectuals.

This isn’t a glossy tourist brochure – it’s a proper Pelican deep-dive, part social history, part reportage, and part “how do the French keep getting away with it?” Ardagh lived in Paris and writes with both affection and sharp observation, charting de Gaulle’s towering presence, May ’68’s chaos, and the shift from a battered post-war society into something modern, messy, and distinctly French.

Our copy? It’s been around the block a bit – much like post-war France – but it’s still perfectly readable, Pelican blue spine and all. If you want to understand the strange alchemy that turned ration cards into Renaults, and barricades into boutiques, this battered paperback will do the job.

Very good conditon with plastic protective sleeve.

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