Vichy France Read Online Free
Bayac, La Milice, 1918–45 (Paris, 1969). My own Parades and Politics at Vichy (Princeton, N.J., 1966) assesses the social and political role of army officers in the regime.
Education at Vichy still awaits serious attention. Political and social attitudes are suggestively discussed in the aforementioned works of Stanley Hoffmann, while H. Stuart Hughes, The Obstructed Path (New York, 1968), examines some of the major intellectual figures active during these years. For the 1930’s intellectual background, one should consult Jean Touchard, “L’Esprit des années 30,” in Tendances politiques de la vie française depuis 1789 (Paris, 1960); Pierre Andreu, “Les Idées politiques de la jeunesse intellectuelle de 1927 à la guerre,” in Académie des sciences morales et politiques, Comptes-rendus (1957), 17–35; and Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle, Les Non-conformistes des années 30 (Paris, 1969).
Other neglected Vichy subjects include the bureaucracy, many aspects of business activity and economic policy, and colonial relations.
Finally, the atmosphere of those dreadful years grows more and more elusive for the young and the foreign. Here fiction is more helpful than memoirs. In my opinion, no one has matched the sardonic A Bon beurre , translated as The Best Butter , of Jean Dutourd, the moving Les Forêts de la Nuit of Jean-Louis Curtis, or the same author’s novel of postwar divisions, Les Justes causes. And at this writing, Pariscrowds are standing in line to see an extraordinary film evocation of life in Clermont-Ferrand during the Vichy period, Maurice Ophuls’ Le Chagrin et la pitié.
Vichy has always aroused passion. Now, as it recedes in time, it should arouse hard thought.
1 Peter Novick, The Resistance Versus Vichy (New York, 1968). See also the work of the High Court’s second-presiding judge, Louis Noguères, La Haute Cour de la Libération (Paris, 1965).
A Note About the Author
Robert O. Paxton was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1932. He received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University, an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. From 1961 to 1967 he taught at Berkeley, and after two years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook is now Professor of Modern Western European History at Columbia University. His book Parades and Politics at Vichy: The French Officer Corps under Marshal Pétain was published by Princeton University Press in 1966.
Education at Vichy still awaits serious attention. Political and social attitudes are suggestively discussed in the aforementioned works of Stanley Hoffmann, while H. Stuart Hughes, The Obstructed Path (New York, 1968), examines some of the major intellectual figures active during these years. For the 1930’s intellectual background, one should consult Jean Touchard, “L’Esprit des années 30,” in Tendances politiques de la vie française depuis 1789 (Paris, 1960); Pierre Andreu, “Les Idées politiques de la jeunesse intellectuelle de 1927 à la guerre,” in Académie des sciences morales et politiques, Comptes-rendus (1957), 17–35; and Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle, Les Non-conformistes des années 30 (Paris, 1969).
Other neglected Vichy subjects include the bureaucracy, many aspects of business activity and economic policy, and colonial relations.
Finally, the atmosphere of those dreadful years grows more and more elusive for the young and the foreign. Here fiction is more helpful than memoirs. In my opinion, no one has matched the sardonic A Bon beurre , translated as The Best Butter , of Jean Dutourd, the moving Les Forêts de la Nuit of Jean-Louis Curtis, or the same author’s novel of postwar divisions, Les Justes causes. And at this writing, Pariscrowds are standing in line to see an extraordinary film evocation of life in Clermont-Ferrand during the Vichy period, Maurice Ophuls’ Le Chagrin et la pitié.
Vichy has always aroused passion. Now, as it recedes in time, it should arouse hard thought.
1 Peter Novick, The Resistance Versus Vichy (New York, 1968). See also the work of the High Court’s second-presiding judge, Louis Noguères, La Haute Cour de la Libération (Paris, 1965).
A Note About the Author
Robert O. Paxton was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1932. He received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University, an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. From 1961 to 1967 he taught at Berkeley, and after two years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook is now Professor of Modern Western European History at Columbia University. His book Parades and Politics at Vichy: The French Officer Corps under Marshal Pétain was published by Princeton University Press in 1966.
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