Nord - Frances New Deal: from the thirties to the liberation

I want to acknowledge first and foremost three friends and colleagues who have read all or large portions of this book: Claire Andrieu, Martin Conway, and Emmanuelle Loyer. I know they do not agree with every argument laid out in the pages that follow, but this did not deter them from trying to make my book a better one. It was a timeconsuming effort, but they did not stint, and I am deeply grateful to them.

The Princeton History Department has been my professional home for many years. I have benefited in the past from the counsel and criticism of my departmental colleagues, and with this book it has been no different. Peter Brown, Sheldon Garon, Jan Gross, Harold James, Arno Mayer, and Daniel Rodgers have in various ways pushed me to think about France, not in isolation, but in broader, comparative terms, and I hope I have been able to make the most of their advice.

In the years that this manuscript has been in preparation, I have accumulated numerous debts to colleagues who helped out when I had a question or got stuck, proposing something useful to read, steering me to an archive, sharing a thought or work of their own. My thanks go to Dudley Andrew, Seth Armus, David Bellos, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Alain Chatriot, Olivier Dard, Hlne Eck, Patrick Fridenson, Jane Fulcher, Pascale Goetschel, Eric Jabbari, Richard Kuisel, Alan Perry, Nathalie Richard, Marie Scot, Debora Silverman, and Bruno Valat.

I have had a number of opportunities to publish pieces of my research or to present it at conferences and seminars. This does not happen without colleagues going out of their way to issue invitations, organize panels, or offer much-needed editorial criticism. Jean-Pierre Azma, Marc Olivier Baruch, Herrick Chapman, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Tony Judt, Theodore Margadant, Jo Burr Margadant, and Paul-Andr Rosental have all gone to generous lengths to give me a chance to present my work, and to them all I express a heartfelt thanks.

I would also like to thank a group of colleagues who have been supportive of me, not just on this specific occasion (though that too), but over the course of my entire career. They have written letters, they have helped me make contacts, they have looked out for my interests in all kinds of ways. I may have guardian angels unknown to me, but these are the ones I do know of: Annette Becker, Patrice Higonnet, Robert Paxton, and Jerrold Seigel.

It is not just from individuals that support has come but also from institutions. The American Council of Learned Societies and the Guggenheim Foundation provided essential fellowship support. My wife and I spent a glorious semester at the National Humanities Center, where I worked, as a Florence Gould Foundation fellow, at getting this manuscript into final shape for publication. Those were very happy months.

Happy, not least of all, because I spent them in the company of my wife, Deborah, who has been my constant and loving partner for so many years. She has been a joy to me.