Product Description

-- Los Angeles Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219722 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 438 pages

Review
"Tells us as much of the truth about Vichy as we are likely to have for a long time... Paxton answers all the basic questions... in an even tone, with a vigorous style, allowing the devastating documents... to speak for themselves." -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author
Robert O. Paxton is Mellon Professor Emeritus of the Social Sciences at Columbia University. His other books include Parades and Politics at Vichy, Europe in the Twentieth Century, and French Peasant Fascism.

Customer Reviews

Revolutionary
This book represented a revolution in the historiorgraphy when it first came out thirty years ago and its lasting importance is shown by the fact that it is still seen as one of the key texts on the period. It played a vital role, alongside studies by people like Jackel and Hoffman and the film the Sorrow and the Pity, in changing the way people thought about the Vichy regime. This change was based on two things. Firstly the recognition that Vichy had actively sought collaboration with the Nazis rather than having it imposed on them. Secondly by highlighting that Vichy's political programme, including its anti-semitism, was home-grown and not just a Nazi import. The regime's anti-semitism was further developed in Paxton's follow-up book, Vichy France and the Jews.

Vichy France, Old Guard and New Order remains very useful today, particularly in highlighting that Petain's regime was not a homogenous block but rather made up of diverse currents. Paxton is very, very good at explaining these currents. Where the book seems dated is in its under-estimation of French Resistance and it's very negative assessments of public opinion. Few historians working today would take Paxton at face value on those two elements. But this remains nevertheless a very worthwhile book and a must for anyone hoping to understand the Vichy regime.

a breakthrough book, but a bit slanted
paxton's book was a breakthrough in that it showed to what a huge extent the vichy regime's odious policies weren't simply imposed by the germans, but were carrying out willingly and represented the revenge of right-wing, catholic, nationalistic france against the left, unions, and jews and other foreigners. but at times the book goes a little too far and borders on cheap anti-frenchness. his denunciations of the vichy regime and the elements of france they represented are well backed up, but he's on much shakier ground when he tries to downplay the role of and support for the resistance and charles de gaulle. overall, a chilling, important book, but it should be read as a book about vichy, and not as a definitive book about all aspects of france under the occupation, as it purports to be.