An essential introduction to the major political problems, debates and conflicts which are central to the history of the Third Republic in France, from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 to the fall of France in June 1940. It provides original sources, detailed commentary and helpful chronologies and bibliographies on topics including: * the emergence of the regime and the Paris Commune of 1871 * Franco-German relations * anti-Semitism and the Dreyfus Affair * the role of women and the importance of the national birth-rate * the character of the French Right and of French fascism.