Description: This is the first general study based on primary research of the reconstruction of conservative parties, business associates, civil service departments and other institutions defending bourgeois interests in the period between 1945 and 1951. French conservatism is presented as a more subtle, dynamic force than has been previously appreciated. It is suggested that the experiences of Vichy, the occupation and the purges inspired new kinds of political synthesis, making conservatives more dynamic and receptive to change than their "progressive" opponents.
Review Quotes: "Richard Vinen, a lecturer in history at King's College in London, has provided a convincing analysis of the complex bourgeois alliances in the Fourth Republic. His book faces squarely historiographical debates concerning the overall success of the regime and provides a far more detailed picture than heretofore available of how different bourgeois groups interacted and aided each other in the remaking of a neo-bourgeois France....It is necessary reading for all those engaged in graduate work on postwar France." Chiarella Esposito, History