paulataua's review
4.0
I rarely find myself reading history books these days, but ‘Vichy France’ was a totally engaging experience. Paxton focuses in on the Vichy government during the German Occupation. Two things really struck me. The first was a growing awareness of why the ‘Vichy’ French felt the need to actually collaborate with Germany even when the Germans, to some extent, seemed fairly uninterested in that collaboration. Having been defeated and occupied, and I think believing, as most people did at that time, that Germany would soon win the war, it was important to insure against losing French land to their victors, losing their colonies to Germany’s allies, and seeing their economy destroyed in the post war peace talks. This was a genuine concern following the way France and the Allies had squeezed ‘the German lemon until the pips squeaked’ following the 1914-18 war. It was something I never really thought about before. The second thing that struck me was how that Vichy government used the occupation to push through their own nationalist, anticommunist, and racist policies by suggesting a German coercion that didn’t seem to have existed. I am always amazed to find out how fascistic and antisemitic the whole of Europe was between the wars, and how much we like to heap all our sins on Hitler and the Nazis. People are so naughty!
idrees2022's review against another edition
5.0
A splendid work of political philosophy. A modern masterpiece.
rimahsum's review against another edition
1.0
I don't think I can put this book as read - I have read ANOTHER book (International Relations Theories by Cynthia Weber) who describes the book and gives analyses as well - but I did not finish this book because it was an utterly dry, dry, DRY book.
redbecca's review
5.0
Robert Paxton is best known for his short book on "generic" fascism, but this book is the one that really made his career in academia. it was originally published in 1972 and shattered the mythologies of Vichy up to that time. It's still cited in contemporary books on occupied France and the major findings hold up. It is very much worth reading today. The historiographical introduction to the 2002 edition is also very good, and could be teachable in history research methods courses.
More...