This graduate course explores themes and episodes in French history since the Paris Commune. Students will be introduced to the historiography of the Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, French colonialism, immigration, the two world wars, the Vichy regime, decolonization, and May 1968. Memory, identity, citizenship, immigration and empire are some of the recurring themes in this course. Readings will include a range of cultural, political, gender, and social approaches. In some cases we will read classics, and in others we will consider very recent studies.