Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order

by Robert Paxton

Overview

Robert O. Paxton's classic study of the aftermath of France's sudden collapse under Nazi invasion utilizes captured German archives and other contemporary materials to construct a strong and disturbing account of the Vichy period in France. With a new introduction and updated bibliography, Vichy France demonstrates that the collaborationist government of Marshal Pétain did far more than merely react to German pressures. The Vichy leaders actively pursued their own double agenda—internally, the authoritarian and racist "national revolution," and, externally, an attempt to persuade Hitler to accept this new France as a partner in his new Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231124690
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/22/2001
Edition description:	revised edition
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert O. Paxton is Mellon Professor Emeritus of the Social Sciences at Columbia University. His other books include Parades and Politics at Vichy, Europe in the Twentieth Century, and French Peasant Fascism.

Editorial Reviews

Tells us as much of the truth about Vichy as we are likely to have for a long time.... Paxton answers all the basic questions... in an even tone, with a vigorous style, allowing the devastating documents... to speak for themselves.

New York Times Book Review

A work of meticulous scholarship . . . lucidly, gracefully written . . . scrupulously fair.

Los Angeles Times

Paxton (emeritus, social sciences, Columbia U.) provides a new introduction and updated bibliography to his classic study, first published in 1972. It shows that the collaborationist government of Marshal P<'e>tain, in the wake of the Nazi invasion, pursued its own double agenda: internally, an authoritarian and racist "national revolution," and externally, an attempt to persuade Hitler to accept the new France as a partner. Paxton sees the case of the Vichy government as more than a historic accounting; in his introduction he writes, "An American who looks honestly at collaborationist France must judge not only with sorrow and pity, but with fear at what his own countrymen might do under equivalent stress." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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