France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 The Dark Years, 1940-1944

This is the first comprehensive study of the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. The author examines the nature and extent of collaboration and resistance, different experiences of Occupation, the persecution of the Jews, intellectual and cultural life under Occupation, and the purge trials that followed. He concludes by tracing the legacy and memory of the Occupation since 1945. Taking in ordinary peoples' experiences, this volume uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.

The French call them 'the Dark Years'... This definitive new history of Occupied France explores the myths and realities of four of the most divisive years in French history. Taking in ordinary people's experiences of defeat, collaboration, resistance, and liberation, it uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.

1 - The Shadow of War: Cultural Anxieties and Modern Nightmares
2 - Rethinking the Republic 1890-1934
3 - Class War/Civil War
4 - The German Problem
5 - The Daladier Moment: Prelude to Vichy or Republican Revival
6 - The Debacle
7 - The National Revolution
8 - Collaboration
9 - Collaborationism
10 - Laval in Power 1942-43
11 - Propaganda,Policing, and Administration
12 - Public Opinion, Vichy, and the Germans
13 - Intellectuals, Artists, and Entertainers
14 - Reconstructing Mankind
15 - Vichy and the Jews
16 - The Free French 1940-1942
17 - The Resistance 1940-1942
18 - De Gaulle and the Resistance 1942
19 - Power Struggles
20 - Resistance in Society
21 - The New France
22 - Towards Liberation: January to June 1944
23 - Liberations
24 - A New France?
25 - Remembering the Occupation