Barnett Singer is professor emeritus of history, Brock University.

Historian Singer offers a provocative . . . examination of the changing postwar French national identity, arguing that France stopped being a 'serious' nation when it abandoned its 'noble' colonial enterprise in favor of searching for self-centered American-style 'happiness.' Singer raises interesting questions about how to evaluate the role of de Gaulle, and his focus on the idea of 'happiness,' particularly his insistence on the significance of pop music, brings an important new area of focus to 1960s Americanization.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: The Algerian Challenge in the Last Serious FranceChapter 3: De Gaulle, the Algerian Denouement, and the End of an EraChapter 4: From French Chanteurs to American Yé-YéChapter 5: Other Aspects of the “Happiness Revolution” in the 1960s and BeyondChapter 6: Today’s Americanized FranceChapter 7: Conclusion

Barnett Singer is professor emeritus of history, Brock University.

Historian Singer offers a provocative . . . examination of the changing postwar French national identity, arguing that France stopped being a 'serious' nation when it abandoned its 'noble' colonial enterprise in favor of searching for self-centered American-style 'happiness.' Singer raises interesting questions about how to evaluate the role of de Gaulle, and his focus on the idea of 'happiness,' particularly his insistence on the significance of pop music, brings an important new area of focus to 1960s Americanization.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: The Algerian Challenge in the Last Serious FranceChapter 3: De Gaulle, the Algerian Denouement, and the End of an EraChapter 4: From French Chanteurs to American Yé-YéChapter 5: Other Aspects of the “Happiness Revolution” in the 1960s and BeyondChapter 6: Today’s Americanized FranceChapter 7: Conclusion