This volume presents an overview of major cultural themes in contemporary France. The section on politics deals with the issue of political cohabitation, the evolution of the Communist Party, the environment, social systems and the European Union. In the social arena, the articles encompass the evolution of the family, benefits for the elderly, the education system, and the social implications of graffiti. The changing nature of French identity is brought to light through an analysis of the press and the debate on multiculturalism. A review of cultural issues includes the notion of leisure, the contemporary social novel, the cosmopolitan tradition in French film, and new cultural spaces.The work concludes with perceptions of France from the United States as seen through diplomatic relations and remakes of french films, and a final essay on France. The various articles include numerous bibliographic references and will be of great interest to Francophiles, academics, and students of French language and culture.

In this panoramic study, Freeman Henry chronicles the rise to prominence of French language and culture. He meticulously analyzes the protracted government-sponsored efforts to foster and maintain that status and--ultimately--the latter-day challenges to France's national linguistic identity posed by Anglocentric globalization and a multicentric European Union. The internal history of the language is closely intertwined with its external history: phonology, morphology, lexicography, and orthography come alive against a backdrop of political, cultural, and institutional manifestations. A felicitous blend of documentary evidence and critical analysis serves to elucidate crucial stages, events, and concepts: 16th-century exuberance, 17th-century foundations, 18th-century expansionism, Revolutionary ideology. Restoration restructuring and commercialization, the advent of linguistic science, the coming of the media age, encroaching technocracy, and clamors for linguistic parity. Individual chapter focus on the plight of minority linguistic communities such as the blind and the deaf, language monitoring policies and legislation such as the Loi Toubon, as well as the feminization project legitimizing Madame la ministre. --Publisher description.

The twenty-first century is now underway, and it's time to look at France once again as it moves into the new millennium. The current collection of essays explores cultural themes which are different than those in the editors' earlier volume, La France à l'aube du XXIe siècle: Tendances et mutations / France at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Trends and Transformations, published in 2000 (Summa Publications; see Google Book Seach on home page). Among the topics explored in this new volume are the presidential election of 2007, changing dietary habits, the condition of women, environmental policies, the economy, education, social mobility, young people, religion, as well as contemporary music, cinema, regional theater, and literature. Articles on multiculturalism, the position of French in today's world, and France in the European Union also provide the reader with provocative insights. All chapters include extensive references (and web sites) and will be of interest to academics, teachers and students of contemporary French culture, and all Francophiles. For the classroom teacher, additional cultural information and activities will be found on the editors' own home page; this material will be updated on a regular basis, thus facilitating the task of presenting a modern-day France that is continuously changing. - Publisher.

Articles examine the history and evolution of censorship, presented in A to Z format.

Same time, the glaring systemic deficiencies of extant welfare systems-and the psychological toll of welfare dependency--became increasingly apparent, even to welfare's supporters.