Contemporary French intellectual thought is now finding itself caught between a nostalgic longing for a unified republic of citizens and the awareness of the fragmentation and pluralism of contemporary society. This book discusses some of the major responses to postmodernity by contemporary French thinkers. In doing so, it covers many of the questions central to the postmodern debate, such as questions of history, representation, identity, ethics and community. Facing Postmodernity shows how the challenges which face French society and its intellectual thinkers today, the breaking up of the city, racism, the crisis of culture and new citizenship, are representative of the new conditions that all western democracies must now confront.