For two decades, the dispute over national identity has dominated public discourse in France. This argument has polarised political parties, divided academics and intellectuals, and fuelled one of the main public controversies since the end of the Cold War. Yet, for all the focus on France&s identity crisis, the origins of this obsession remain widely misunderstood. Key to understanding this problem is the forgotten history of the 1980s, a crucial decade in which the definition of French national identity was wrapped up with a renewed political focus on French culture. In this period, it was not Jean-Marie Le Pen&s far right, but the Left, that reinvigorated debates around French identity.  This book seeks to decipher a forgotten history. It explains when and how the politics of national identity emerged in France, and how it transformed public life, offering a fresh perspective on the growing political importance of French culture during François Mitterrand&s presidency, as cultural questions became central to a far-reaching national narrative. Vincent Martigny&s study explores the Socialist government&s fight against American "cultural imperialism", its preparations for the bicentennial of the Revolution, and the multicultural policy agenda known as the "right to difference", in order to explain debates which would enduringly reshape French public life.  Looking beyond the French case, Martigny uses his knowledge of nationalism to provide original insight into how cultural questions, especially concerning immigration and majority identities, have today become the focus of intense political conflict in most Western European countries. Charting the wider period from May 1968 to the end of Mitterrand&s presidency in 1995, this book illustrates the pivotal role of the 1970s and 1980s in France&s transition to a new era of identity politics.