Vichy, Resistance, Liberation New Perspectives on Wartime France [Hardcover]

Bringing together key international scholars, Vichy, Resistance, Liberation: New Perspectives on Wartime France offers original insight into this critical period of modern France. It shifts the focus away from straightforward political history to reflect the current interest in socio-cultural aspects of the Second World War and breaks down traditional chronological barriers.In seeking to understand war from a social perspective, the contributors focus on individuals and communities. Wars are moments which forever alter the emphasis of social expression. Rumours emerge as a major aspect of daily life. Wars are also periods offering new possibilities to individuals. Several contributors explore the lives of previously little known individuals in Vichy France Paulette Bernge, Daniel Gurin, Georges Mauco, Franois Perroux. Other contributors emphasize some of the forgotten actors of the period, most notably the anarchists. Other contributors uncover new information about womens experience in Vichy France.Vichy, Resistance, Liberation moves away from the trend of synthesis history and presents path-breaking research and new trajectories of interest in the field. The collection pays tribute to the work of H.R. Kedward, the world-renowned specialist on Occupied France.

Dr. Hanna Diamond is Senior Lecturer in French History in the European Studies Department, University of Bath.
Dr. Simon Kitson is Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Birmingham.

One Historian's Contributions to the Debates on Vichy France--Hanna Diamond and Simon Kitson * Interview with H.R. Kedward--Martin Evans * Collective Trajectories at War * Pacifists into Resisters? Gender and Shifting Identities in France During World War II--Sian Reynolds * Reflections on Resistance and Refuge: Nice, 1939-1945--Miranda Pollard * The Mining Communities of Gardanne at War--Hanna Diamond * Wartime Rumors or Fighting with Imaginary Weapons--Jean-Marie Guillon * Quite simply Colonel.... GenlÃ3