Recorded on 13 August 2015 as part of the 'Rethinking the Past' festival lecture series at the University of Edinburgh.

For two centuries or more, most French people, and many foreigners, considered French politics to be at the vanguard of history. But in the past four decades, this image has been shattered. France now seems to be a European country like any other, with the usual combination of socio-economic stagnation and bland politics. In this talk, Dr Emile Chabal will offer new perspectives on this transformation, focusing on the revival of French republicanism since the 1980s and suggesting that France’s current ‘crisis’ reflects, not simply the promises and pathologies of French political culture, but also a deep unease about national identity in Europe more generally.