Product Description

From the Liberation purges to the Barbie trial, France has struggled with the memory of the Vichy experience: a memory of defeat, occupation and repression. In this study, Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation - a nation where reality and myth commingle to confound understanding - has dealt with "les annees noires", specifically examining what the French have chosen to remember and what they have chosen to conceal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361034 in Books
• Published on: 1994-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Synopsis
From the Liberation purges to the Barbie trial, France has struggled with the memory of the Vichy experience: a memory of defeat, occupation and repression. In this study, Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation - a nation where reality and myth commingle to confound understanding - has dealt with "les annees noires", specifically examining what the French have chosen to remember and what they have chosen to conceal.

Customer Reviews

Why France hasn't yet come to terms with Vichy.
The passing on of such a difficult past is a complex alchemy which can only be partial and biased. The author shows well how each actor of the French society has its own recollection and its own analysis of this dark period of French History. A very good book to be read by any student studying the myth of Vichy and by anyone interested to know why Vichy is still today a burning subject in France. The analysis stops in 1986 but it would be interesting to see a sequel to this book given the recent trial of Maurice Papon, possibly the last resurgence of the Vichy regime. However, do not expect to find there all the answers, the subject being too big for one book to be exhaustive.