Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24104 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-26
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Literary Review
`A history of the French people under occupation from their point of view ... immaculately researched, well-written and original'

Scotsman
`An utterly absorbing, eye-opening account'

Oldie
`A masterly survey of the years when the French learned to live under the rule of the Nazis'

Customer Reviews

Excellent wide-ranging history of France's 'Dark Years'
The Unfree French covers the most important aspects of life under the German occupation - collaboration and resistance, keeping body and soul together under severe restrictions, and so on. It also describes subjects less often touched on in books on the topic: emotional relationships between French men and women, French and Germans, the changing position of women in society, the sufferings (or not) of the two million-odd French prisoners of war in Germany, town-country relations.

Overall, a very good history of the times, full of new archival material that always illustrates the dilemmas of life under occupation. Like Robert Gildea's 'Marianne in Chains", Mr Vinen's book draws very much on regional archives and masters and doctoral theses from regional universities. While this provides fascinating content, it tends to reduce events in Paris to a mere sideshow in some ways. This was slightly disappointing, which explains the four stars; otherwise, the book is easily a five-star success.