Publisher's Synopsis
This is a vivid and highly readable account of the most complex and disturbing series of events in French history since the Revolution, which makes use of literature and films in addition to a vast range of more conventional sources. As such, it will become a standard addition to the literature on the Second World War. It provides a detailed narrative: from the false hopes of the Munich agreement of 1938, through the German occupation, to the final liberation of France in 1944. Professor Azéma not only describes the forces of fanaticism in France, whether collaborationist or those of the Resistance against the background of the Vichy Government, but also gives a place to those men and women who took no active part in these troubled times. In adopting a strictly chronological plan, the author indicates clearly the part played by accident but he is also keen to express his own views rather than to act as a disembodied spectator.
