The Mitterrand Experiment

Twenty essays on the years of the Mitterrand presidency, on their effect on the French economy and political culture, on France's role in the world. Altogether a first-rate interpretative summary of years that have been studied with daunting thoroughness. Stanley Hoffmann concludes that "the major contribution of the five years of Socialist rule is a big push toward the 'normalization,' or banalization, of French political life." On the whole, a surprising but perhaps not unwelcome development.