Podcast Summary
New Books Network – French Studies
Episode: Darcie Fontaine, “Modern France and the World” (Routledge, 2023)
Air Date: November 28, 2025
Host: Sarah Miles
Guest: Darcie Fontaine

Overview

This episode features historian Darcie Fontaine discussing her new book Modern France and the World (Routledge, 2023). Departing from traditional single-topic monographs, Fontaine's textbook offers an integrative overview of modern France—politically, culturally, and globally—from the 18th century to the present. The conversation explores her scholarly path, the unique challenges of textbook writing, and the methodological choices behind presenting French history in a global and imperial context, emphasizing the uses and ambitions of the book for students, teachers, and researchers.

Key Discussion Points

1. Darcie Fontaine’s Path to French History

• Initial spark: Interest began in a collegiate course on the French Revolution, taught by Gary Cates, which transformed her understanding of history.
• Academic journey: Involved major changes, international study (a transformative year at a French university), and a winding route through women’s/gender history, culminating in work on French women, refugees, and ultimately, colonial Christianity.
  • “I was writing a French thesis at the same time on French literature. And it was, it was just really useful to kind of think of all these things together.” (04:09)
• Happenstance: Dissertation topic shifted after early projects failed to inspire—choosing instead a research path sparked by an archival pamphlet on Christians and the Algerian War.

2. Conception and Process of Writing the Textbook

• Commissioned opportunity: Routledge editor Eve Setch proposed the book as part of a “Europe and the World” series.
• Ambition: Fontaine saw a gap in existing French history textbooks—none integrated empire/colonial history seamlessly or provided flexible, pedagogically useful structuring.
• Pedagogical focus: Designed for adaptability in varied teaching contexts with 15 chapters, covering from the 18th century to the present.

Notable Challenges

• Periodization: Fontaine deliberately did not center the book around the Republics (e.g., Fourth, Fifth Republic), instead favoring time frames that integrate imperial events (e.g., chapter on 1945–1962, to include the decolonization wars and their aftermath).

  “If I was going to do France and the empire… then I needed to think about a periodization that actually captured the things that were happening in the Empire as well as in the Metropole.” (10:48)

• Community input: Relied heavily on colleagues and friends for bibliographic suggestions, feedback, and broadening across fields (Atlantic history, Indian Ocean, early America).
• Writing and revising: Initial manuscript far exceeded target word count (200,000 vs. 120,000 words); multiple drafts, significant cuts, and collaborative editing were essential.

  “The initial manuscript was about 200,000 words, and I had to get it down to 120.” (14:54)

3. The Role of Community and Collaboration

• Essential to research: Fontaine credits her network with providing expertise in unfamiliar areas, especially early colonial history and the “long 1970s” (where few monographs exist).
• Field interviews: For recent history (1970s–80s), oral conversations with those who lived through the era informed the book’s content (e.g., on radio, television, and musical genres).

  “Even particularly in fields that are kind of tangential to what we call French Empire history… just having people to help me think through what the historiographical stakes were…” (16:08)

4. What Makes This Textbook Different?

• Gaps in existing texts: Most are too politically focused, lack integration of social/gender/cultural history, or start/end at awkward times for curricula.
• Integrated approach: Aims to synthesize political, social, gender, and imperial histories within each narrative, providing not just top-down events, but also everyday life, art, literature, and popular culture.

  “What my kind of perspective is, is that they need to be integrated with one another.” (22:45)

• Cultural objects: Each chapter begins with a novel, film, or source as a springboard for the period’s themes—creating modules for teachers to expand on.

  “Why don’t you try doing that with every chapter? Like, find something—a novel, a film, something that you feel like is representative of the themes that you want to cover…” (26:05)

5. Imperial and Global France: Methodological Foundations

• Historiographical influences: Fontaine, trained amidst the “global turn,” sees integrating empire as foundational—moving beyond parallel histories of France/colonies to demonstrate their ongoing entwinement.

  “It has to… think carefully about, you know, what it means to say that these things are intimately connected and constantly intertwined…” (31:23)

• Pedagogical resonance: Her teaching experience at a large public university, often with future teachers, shaped a book serving diverse student backgrounds and global perspectives.

  “Teaching a survey, you have to really think big... Instead of getting bogged down in minutiae, you have to find patterns…” (21:18)

6. Key Thematic Insights

• Religion: Traditional narratives emphasize secularization and republican progress; integrating empire, however, reveals religion’s enduring importance in colonial and metropolitan contexts.

  “Once you get into the empire, religion becomes so important to the story… all the kind of narratives about republicanism and secularization in the metropole fall apart in the empire.” (39:02)

• Immigration and Nationhood: Flexibility in structures of “citizenship” and “French identity” is traced over time, with special attention to how imperial frameworks challenge, complicate, or disrupt metropolitan narratives.
• Social and Gender History: Women’s history and movements are not relegated to sidelights, but are woven through the book as central to understanding long-term change.

7. On History as an Evolving Practice and Field

• Historiographical transparency: The book explicitly discusses the development of professional history in France—museums, archives, and evolving methodologies.

  “Choosing where you start is a historiographical argument, right? Choosing what narratives should be included, which ones should be excluded—all of that is historiography.” (55:49)

• Textbooks as interventions: Fontaine sees the textbook itself as a scholarly intervention, not just pedagogical work—arguing that every narrative choice reflects deeper debates in the field.

8. Process of Selection, Editing, and What Was Lost

• Cutting beloved material: Example—5,000 words on the Algerian War were cut; whole monographs’ worth of reading went into single sentences on topics like the Crimean War.

  “I think literally 5,000 words on the Algerian war got cut out of that chapter.” (65:28)

• External editing: A non-historian editor was key for streamlining and clarity—ensuring accessibility for students.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Sometimes you have to figure it out for yourself.” (Bonnie Smith’s advice, 05:40)
• “I could have done it by myself, but it definitely would have looked very different.” (16:08)
• “It needs to include the empire. It needs to do social history. It needs to have history of ideas, cultural history…” (22:45)
• “[Global history] is really about movement and circulation versus, you know, kind of world history being about big patterns and so forth. But I liked the global aspect of it more because you could focus on individual stories.” (33:04)
• “Every choice that I made about what to include, what not to include, how the narratives work is embedded in the historiography and the debates that exist in the field.” (60:26)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Darcie’s path to French history: 03:08–06:14
• Why (and how) write a textbook?: 06:41–13:54
• Pedagogy and structure—serving diverse needs: 09:06–15:38
• Community and collaborative input: 15:38–19:38
• Integrating culture, empire, and the global: 21:18–31:23
• Religion, immigration, and entangled narratives: 37:26–42:32
• Historiographical interventions & the politics of textbooks: 54:50–61:33
• Editing, what was cut, and the challenge of breadth: 64:09–67:28
• What’s next for Darcie Fontaine: 68:13–70:20

Ending & Future Directions

Fontaine shares that she recently left her professorial role and is now launching a developmental editing and translation company, continuing to think creatively about intellectual work, translation, and perhaps returning to a research monograph on Algeria and adventure. She also teases a “slapstick mystery novel set at a French history conference” and a cultural study of “the Paris of...” as future projects.

Summary by Section:

• Introduction/academe journey: 03:08–06:14
• Writing the book and methodology: 06:41–15:38
• Community, collaboration, and unfamiliar topics: 15:38–20:48
• Structure, pedagogy, and examples: 21:18–26:05
• Integrating culture, empire, and global frameworks: 26:05–37:26
• Impact of the global lens on narratives: 37:26–45:01
• Challenges in fields outside specialism: 45:21–48:05
• Historiographical work and teaching: 54:50–62:35
• Editing and what was lost: 64:08–67:28
• Next steps and new directions: 68:13–70:20

Tone and Style

Fontaine is candid, self-reflective, and collaborative, emphasizing the collective nature of historical scholarship and teaching. The conversation is insightful, practical, and inspiring for both newcomers and seasoned historians, as well as educators seeking to refresh how they teach modern French history.