In this first main chapter we will look at some of the background influences upon French intellectual life between World War II and 1968. The sections in this chapter deal with those philosophical positions, in the widest sense of the term "philosophical", which provide a background to understanding the poststructuralist movement and its influences and affects, and its implications for educational discourse. Second, major changes took place in the French educational system in the late 1960s and 1970s, though not without incident, as the students' and workers' revolution of May-June 1968 illustrates well. It will also be important to look at those changes and the events of May-June 1968 because there are not only intellectual and theoretical connections and parallels, in spite of marked and spiteful differences, but also some poststructuralists, e.g., Lyotard, were quite involved in the events of May-June.