Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944

by Ian Ousby

Overview

France was slow and somewhat ineffectual in organizing resistance movement. In Occupation Ian Ousby challenges the myth that France was liberated " by the whole of France." The author explores the Nazi occupation of France with superb detail and eyewitness accounts that range from famous figures like Simone de Beauvoir, Charles de Gaulle, Andre Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre and Gertrude Stein to ordinary citizens, forgotten heroes and traitors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461741671
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/03/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Editorial Reviews

A history of how the French people dealt with the humiliating defeat administered by the Germans in 1940, the occupation that followed, and the end of the Third Republic. Ousby, who has taught history at universities in Britain and the US, first explains why French army and air force seemed so outmatched by the Germans: Although many in number, the troops were poorly led by aged generals who relied on obsolete WW I tactics stressing defense over the offensive. The French forces were no match for a Nazi blitzkrieg featuring massed tanks, armored vehicles, Stuka dive bombers, and swift moving infantry. The government had no choice but to accept humiliating terms of surrender. Harsh reparations were imposed on France, Hitler's revenge for the Treaty of Versailles. General Petain, the hero of Verdun in WW I, a figurehead father image, was installed in the puppet Vichy government that strictly followed Nazi orders. The Germans plundered France's food, drink, and art; the French were reduced by drastic rationing to a nation in perpetual need. The feared Gestapo was much in evidence, and Vichy stooges cooperated with the Nazis in rounding up Jews, communists, and dissidents. The resistants grew in number, and the Germans responded by executing more and more French citizens. A French civil war between Vichy loyalists and underground patriots broke out, adding to the suffering. The resistants suffered high casualties; their charismatic leader Jean Moulin eventually paid with his life. After the German surrender the nation was transfixed by anger, frustration, and shame. The French focused their violent fury on a variety of individuals and groups viewed as having betrayed France. The haughty,immensely self-assured Charles de Gaulle, head of Free French forces, quickly stepped into the power vacuum left by the war, setting France on a new and increasingly controversial course. A well-written, carefully researched, often fascinating story of the long and little known French ordeal.

Kirkus Reviews

“A brilliantly written book, the first history - social and cultural as well as political and military - of the Occupation to be published in English for the general reader.”

Independent on Sunday

“The first such study in English… long-overdue, informed, sensitive, balanced and insightful... Ousby carefully delineates the causes and consequences... seeking neither to blame nor praise but, in the best traditions of biography - and this is virtually a political biography of a nation in trauma - seeking to understand... A work of judicious empathy and calm, persuasive moral authority. We who were not there should be grateful.”

Sunday Times

“A compelling account... His book is a valuable distillation culled from the vast amount of literature on the subject available in French, and it provides a wealth of intriguing detail about daily life and contemporary attitudes.”

The Independent

“He has a gift for evoking concretely how life was lived and how the world looked... A reliable and moving evocation of the dilemmas of ordinary life during France's most unendurable years.”

Times Literary Supplement

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