Paris at War: 1939-1944

by David Drake

Overview

Paris at War chronicles the lives of ordinary Parisians during World War II, from September 1939 when France went to war with Nazi Germany to liberation in August 1944. Readers will relive the fearful exodus from the city as the German army neared the capital, the relief and disgust felt when the armistice was signed, and the hardships and deprivations under Occupation. David Drake contrasts the plight of working-class Parisians with the comparative comfort of the rich, exposes the activities of collaborationists, and traces the growth of the Resistance from producing leaflets to gunning down German soldiers. He details the intrigues and brutality of the occupying forces, and life in the notorious transit camp at nearby Drancy, along with three other less well known Jewish work camps within the city.

The book gains its vitality from the diaries and reminiscences of people who endured these tumultuous years. Drake’s cast of characters comes from all walks of life and represents a diversity of political views and social attitudes. We hear from a retired schoolteacher, a celebrated economist, a Catholic teenager who wears a yellow star in solidarity with Parisian Jews, as well as Resistance fighters, collaborators, and many other witnesses.

Drake enriches his account with details from police records, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newsreels. From his chronology emerge the broad rhythms and shifting moods of the city. Above all, he explores the contingent lives of the people of Paris, who, unlike us, co­uld not know how the story would end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674504813
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/16/2015
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

David Drake has taught at universities in London and Paris and has published widely on French intellectual and cultural history.

Editorial Reviews

David Drake writes a narrative of the capital during [World War II] that, by catching the mood of those Parisians who wrote diaries and journals of the Occupation, restores a humane sense of reality to a story that can easily be reduced to one of derring-do (on the part of resisters) or cloak-and-dagger machinations (on the part of Laval, his enemies on the Right, and the German officials who alternately loathed and manipulated him). Built up on a deep engagement with the practical problems of living in Paris, as well as an elegant account of how Nazi authorities squabbled over its management, Drake’s book is hugely readable and satisfyingly detailed.

Times Literary Supplement - Julian Wright

Above all, [Drake] has created a social history that brings alive a unique moment in Europe’s recent past.

Camden New Journal - Dan Carrier

David Drake’s gripping story moves away from well-known heroes and villains to the lives of ordinary Parisians and their daily struggle to survive the vagaries of the German occupation… He captures the sense of helplessness as citizens confronted repression, hunger, fierce winters and even Allied bombing. Rich in detail and eye-opening anecdotes, these pages make an important contribution to the scholarship of the occupation by remembering the most innocent and vulnerable victims of the darkest years of the City of Light.

Alan Riding

David Drake’s Paris At War: 1939–1944 is perhaps the best attempt, of a great many, to convey how daily life felt under Nazi occupation. A vast range of sources have gone into creating a portrait of grim times that is full of nuance and free, mercifully, of assertion.

Glasgow Herald - Ian Bell

A fascinating, quick-paced, and moving history with a strong narrative. Drake’s Paris at War is the product of thorough and far-reaching research and sensitive interpretation.

Rod Kedward

Offer[s] a rich and immediate history of both occupied Paris and occupied Parisians—and leaves the reader fearing for the fates of those for whom death seemed certain.

Times Higher Education - Victoria Harris

By incorporating excerpts from diaries and letters that until now had not been translated into English, Drake adds fresh perspective to events—Verdun hero Philippe Pétain’s willingness to lead the collaborationist Vichy government, Charles de Gaulle’s Free French resistance—that have been documented many times before… The message of this powerful book is that most Parisians were neither heroes nor collaborationists but ordinary people trying to survive.

Star Tribune - Michael Magras

David Drake’s Paris at War: 1939–1944 is a remarkable book… Drake has revived the Occupation period with an obsessive and impressive sense of detail. Sometimes the book feels almost too close, too vividly evocative not to hurt… The force of Paris at War is that it brings together all of these disparate scenes to realize (in the stronger sense of the verb) their full weight. The book is an accumulation of moments, facts, words—a sum of more than 400 pages which has the feel of a definitive, though necessarily incomplete, monument… Paris at War should therefore be read attentively and in its entirety, for all its many nuances, its subtle patterns and motives, its skillful interpretation of Paris during an exceptionally traumatic period.

PopMatters - Elodie Roy

A narrative that illuminates the day-to-day experiences of the rich and poor, collaborators, black marketers, Resistance fighters, Jews, and communists… Engaging and informative.

Philadelphia Inquirer - Glenn C. Altschuler

2015-06-25
The plight of ordinary Parisians during World War II. With access to the diaries of everyday citizens who lived through the Nazi occupation of Paris, Drake assembles a valuable picture of "personal history, remembered conversations, the minutiae of routine, fragments of memory." Everyone knew the war was coming; it was just a matter of when. By early September 1939, France had civil defense bolstered, men mobilized, and art treasures moved to safety. After the invasion of Poland, France and England declared war on Germany and thus began the "funny sort of war." The Polish intrusion was a reason to declare war, but the Allies sat back and waited for Hitler to attack them, thereby giving him plenty of time to complete the destruction of Poland. It was not until May 1940 that Hitler, after pushing the British and French to Dunkirk, broke through the Ardennes and caught the French completely by surprise. By June 22, the French had capitulated, and Germany proceeded to dismember her. France was divided into two zones: the occupied zone under German control and the "free zone" led by World War I hero Philippe Pétain and the widely loathed Pierre Laval. Presenting the story chronologically, Drake creates an easily comprehensible, even exciting, narrative. The author vividly portrays the desperation of searching for food, fuel, and clothing, along with the dangers of arrest and false accusations. During the "phony war," almost 500,000 people left Paris—those with money, a place to go, and the means to get there—only to return to rationing and severe restrictions. The passive resistance, the roundups, the collaborationists, and the young communists are all part of the lore of wartime Paris, and Drake does a solid job exploring how it all affected "Parisians of all ages." Students of French and World War II history will enjoy and learn from this well-written book.

Kirkus Reviews