Chapman’s exemplary monograph begins with a familiar but necessary survey of a ruined France. There was a widespread agreement that recovery from war and occupation would require “modernizing” but no consensus on what that meant. Charles De Gaulle had one set of ideas, but the Resistance had a different set. Socialists, progressive Catholics, and Communists all had their own visions, which overlapped in some ways but conflicted in others. Moreover, as those who sought to rebuild the country groped their way toward a better future, they did so in the face of substantial dangers—austerity, inflation, and the incipient threat of a popular uprising. Social peace, economic prosperity, and political stability were no sure bet in the late 1940s.
Chapman offers four chapters that focus on four different policy domains—immigration, “shopkeeper turmoil,” family policy, and nationalizations. At the first moments of recovery, France needed workers. The place of women in the...