In this monumental new account of the Vichy years, Julian Jackson examines French experiences of Occupation during the 'Black Years' of 1940-4. Pulling together previously separate 'histories' of occupation, resistance, and collaboration he presents a definitive history of the period. This is a more complex history than the traditional dichotomy between 'collaboration' and 'resistance', one in which the ideological frontiers between Vichy and the Resistance were
often blurred. This study ranges from the politics of Marshal Pétain's regime to the experiences of the ordinary French people, from surrender in 1940 to the purges of liberation. The author restores
the organized Resistance to a more central role than has been customary in recent years and presents a new social history of the resistance which takes in the roles of foreigners, women, Jews, and peasants. He uncovers the long term roots of the Vichy regime in political and social conflict and cultural crisis stretching back to the Great War and concludes by tracing the lasting legacy and memory of Occupation since 1945.
Industry Reviews
The Times non-fiction round up Books of the Year 2001 by Iain Finlayson
Sunday Times Christmas (the year?) round-up
In a single volume, written forcibly and clearly, he has survey the whole subject,from the pre-war years to the goivernemnt of Vichy, the Occupation, the Resistance and Liberation'. Douglas Johnson, TLS
`important new study'
John Crossland, The Sunday Times
`written forcibly and clearly'
Douglas Johnson, Times Literary Supplement
`In a sense it is all in this book, which will become the standard manual for students and teachers alike.'
Robert Gildea, Reviews in History
`Jackson does this with his usual good judgement, framing the book with the debates of historians at the beginning and the construction of collective memories at the end. His conclusion, wisely if tentatively, is that 'the French past must be faced in all its contradictions and complexity.'
Robert Gildea, Reviews in History
`a powerful contribution to the historiography...it also a pleasurable read: judicious, well crafted, always with an eye for the telling quotation or anecdote.'
Robert Gildea, Reviews in History
`Julian Jackson has now gone a long way to illuminating for an English readership what the French call "the dark years".'
John Crossland, The Sunday Times
`wide-ranging ... The story is regularly enriched by nuggets of unexpected information.'
Patrick Marnham, Spectator, 7 July 2001
`there will probably never be a more thorough and detailed account of what happened to France and the French during the Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1944 ... By its end the reader has the clearest possible picture not just of those dark years, but of the forces at work in French society and politics in the years leading up to them, and of the aftermath once liberation was achieved ... This is a brilliant book, but for anyone cherishing ideals of French
heroism, it will prove a painful one.'
Simon Heffer, Country Life, 12 July 2001
`Julian Jackson ... has managed to tease the complexities of the occupation into a story that is both ingenious and convincing ... This book consciously eschews the shock tactics so often adopted by Anglo-Saxon historians who write about Vichy ... Mr Jackson's work is careful and sober ... He is particularly good at evoking the dangerous glamour of that small group who dominated artistic and intellectual life in occupied Paris.'
Economist (UK), 13 July 2001
`The story of France in 1940-44 has been told countless times, but never before in English in such full and fascinating detail ... lucid and lively.'
John Ardagh, Yorkshire Post, 14 June 2001
'the definitive study of the Occupation years and should be in every French history collection' Library Journal (USA)
`Jackson thoroughly dissects the multilayed complexities of a nation at war with itself and shows how, in the final analysis, it was the persevering spirit of the average French citizen that prevailed during those 'dark years.' Jackson's reputation for meticulous scholarship is quite evident in this latest work, which supplants JP Azema's From Munich to Liberation (Cambridge UP) as the definitive study on the Occupation.'
Library Journal (USA) 07/01
`easy to read ... the supporting details and quotations are well chosen and interesting.'
David Pryce-Jones, Literary Review
