A "blend of courtroom drama, political intrigue and brilliant narrative history" that examines the life and after-life of a trial that shaped modern France: the 1945 prosecution of Philippe Pétain, Vichy France's head of state.
For three weeks in July 1945 all eyes were fixed on a humid Paris, where France's disgraced former head of state was on trial, accused of masterminding a plot to overthrow democracy. Would Philippe Petain, hero of Verdun, be condemned as the traitor of Vichy?
In the terrible month of October 1940, few things were more shocking than the sight of Marshal Philippe Petain-supremely decorated hero of the First World War, now head of the French government-shaking hands with Hitler. Pausing to look at the cameras, Petain announced that France would henceforth collaborate with Germany. "This is my policy," he…
Winner of the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award
"Deeply researched and forcefully written . . . deftly explains the confused politics and diplomacy that bedeviled the war against the Nazis."-Wall Street Journal
"Neiberg is one of the very best historians on wartime France, and his approach to the fall of France and its consequences is truly original and perceptive as well as superbly written."-Antony Beevor, author of The Second World War
"An utterly gripping account, the best to date, of relations within the turbulent triumvirate of France, Britain, and America in the Second World War."-Andrew Roberts, author of…
In 1940, French democracy committed suicide. What came next is still under debate.
Published in 1972, this book revolutionized French history and shaped a generation of French citizens. Its assessment is more persuasive than ever. Read it if you haven't, re-read it if you have.
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 Petain 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.
