The picturesque town of Dreux, 60 miles west of Paris, quietly entered history in 1821, when Victor Hugo won the hand of his beloved there. Another century and a half would pass before the town made history again, but this time there was nothing quiet about it. In 1983, Jean-Francois Le Pen's National Front candidates made a startling electoral gain in the Dreux region. Its liberal traditions had ended abruptly.

With the radical right controlling the municipal council and the deputy mayor's office, Dreux became the forerunner of neofascist advances all across the nation. A Small City in France is Francoise Gaspard's explanation of how this came to be.