Description: This is the first comprehensive study of the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. The author examines the nature and extent of collaboration and resistance, different experiences of Occupation, the persecution of the Jews, intellectual and cultural life under Occupation, and the purge trials that followed. He concludes by tracing the legacy and memory of the Occupation since 1945. Taking in ordinary peoples' experiences, this volume uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.
Review Quotes: "Jackson has synthesized a wealth of secondary works in an account that is thorough, thoughtful, lucid, and awesomely commodious."--Eugen Weber, The Atlantic Monthly
"This book is an exhaustive synthesis of scholarly research, memoirs and diaries...What makes Jackson's account particularly useful is that it traces both the prewar roots of wartime developments and the postwar reverberations--the trials, purges, films and novels. Vichy and the resistance thus emerge clearly as part of the longer run of French history...This book bears impressive testimony to the depth of France's postwar conversation with itself about what it endured during the war,"--The New York Times Book Review"This insightful, thoroughly researched book will be of interest to scholars and general readers, who will come away with a profound understanding of a crucial time in French history"--Publishers Weekly"In the most complete and careful history to date of occupied France, Jackson unflinchingly explores the complexities and moral ambiguities of his subject."--The Atlantic Monthly