This is the most authoritative account available of the presidency of Georges Pompidou. Pompidou consolidated the constitutional changes made by de Gaulle, to the extent that he is now regarded as the Fifth Republic's second founding father, and continued his haughty attitudes to foreign policy. He also launched a program of modernization and industrialization: under Pompidou France saw both the climax and the end of the postwar boom. Serge Berstein and Jean-Pierre Rioux analyze the politics of the period, and also give an overview of France's economy, culture and society.