France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944

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Oxford University Press, 2001 - History - 660 pages
In this monumental new account of the Vichy years, Julian Jackson examines French experiences of Occupation during the 'Black Years' of 1940-4. Pulling together previously separate 'histories' of occupation, resistance, and collaboration he presents a definitive history of the period. This isa more complex history than the traditional dichotomy between 'collaboration' and 'resistance', one in which the ideological frontiers between Vichy and the Resistance were often blurred. This study ranges from the politics of Marshal Petain's regime to the experiences of the ordinary Frenchpeople, from surrender in 1940 to the purges of liberation. The author restores the organized Resistance to a more central role than has been customary in recent years and presents a new social history of the resistance which takes in the roles of foreigners, women, Jews, and peasants. He uncoversthe long term roots of the Vichy regime in political and social conflict and cultural crisis stretching back to the Great War and concludes by tracing the lasting legacy and memory of Occupation since 1945.
 

Contents

Introduction Historians and the Occupation
1
Introduction
23
Class WarCivil War
65
The German Problem
81
Prelude to Vichy
97
The Debacle
112
Introduction
139
Collaborationism
190
Vichy and the Jews
354
Introduction
385
The Free French
389
The Resistance
402
De Gaulle and the Resistance
427
Power Struggles
447
Resistance in Society
475
Introduction
527

Laval in Power
213
Introduction
239
Propaganda Policing and Administration
246
Public Opinion Vichy and the Germans
272
Intellectuals Artists and Entertainers
300
Reconstructing Mankind
327
Liberations
544
A New France?
570
Epilogue Remembering the Occupation
601
Mitterrands Memories
621
Bibliographical Essay
637
Copyright

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About the author (2001)


Julian Jackson is a Professor of History at the University of Wales, Swansea.

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