From the end of the 18th century, women and men writers struggle to publish the mysteries of holy confession in fictions. In the light of a cultural history of confession, this book attempts to study the games of inversion between the intimate and the public that characterize the writing of their novels.

By taking into account the most recent historiographical debates, this book rethinks the history of the republican school by examining the relationship that the French school – and more generally the process of « nationalization » of the school system – maintained with on-going experiences in the Western countries.

Since the financial crisis of the late 2000s, young adults from Italy have taken to the road of exile once again. These new migrations, little studied, are presented in the media as a brain drain. Through an ethnographic survey of Italians who have recently arrived in Paris, this book proposes a different approach, focusing on the role of family.