The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation [Hardcover]

Richard Vinen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2006

The swift and unexpected defeat of the French Army in 1940 shocked the nation. Two million soldiers were taken prisoner, six million civilians fled from the German army’s advance to join convoys of confused and terrified refugees, and only a few managed to escape the country. The vast majority of French people were condemned to years of subjugation under Nazi and Vichy rule. This compelling book investigates the impact of the occupation on the people of France and dispels any lingering notion that somehow, under the collaborating government of Marshal Pétain, life was quite tolerable for most French citizens.

Richard Vinen describes the inescapable fear and the moral quandaries that permeated life in German-controlled France. Focusing on the experiences of the least privileged, he shows how chronic shortages, desperate compromises, fear of displacement, racism, and sadistic violence defined their lives. Virtually all adult males festered in POW camps or were sent to work in the Reich. With numerous enthralling anecdotes and a variety of maps and evocative photographs, The Unfree French makes it possible for the first time to understand how average people in France really lived from 1940 to 1945, why their experiences differed from region to region and among various groups, and why they made the choices they did during the occupation.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

During the years 1940-44, the French were forced by circumstances to adjust personally to the German occupation, and circumstances worsened (lethally for French Jews) as the war lengthened. Therefore, the historical distinction between collaboration and resistance is questionable when it comes to understanding French society in these years, and Vinen stresses the tough circumstances in both material and psychic terms. In the humiliation of the 1940 defeat, Vinen discerns the emasculation felt by two million captured French soldiers taken back to forced labor in Germany. These imprisoned men were a major influence on how those back in France coped, as their absence compelled a substantial number of women to shift for themselves. Exploring French society operating under the restrictions of occupation, Vinen refrains from overgeneralization and draws sympathy, especially for those women with liaisons to Germans, who were denounced after liberation as collaborators. Privation and loneliness are the dominating moods of Vinen's social history, which offers an alternate perspective to the political and military histories that dominate the subject of occupied France. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Even well-informed readers will come away from Vinen''s social history with a deeper knowledge of what it was like to live in France during the German occupation. It turns out in his wide-ranging account that it was much bleaker than what we had supposed."—Robert Wohl, author of The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950.

 
 

(Robert Wohl )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1St Edition edition (November 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300121326
• ISBN-13: 978-0300121322
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,487,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good But Basically Advanced Material, December 30, 2010

By 

Greg Goebel (Loveland, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation (Paperback)

I've been looking around for a good book to cover the entirely confusing subject of France in World War II, and THE UNFREE FRENCH seemed to fit the bill. However, on actually reading it I discovered that this book is not, as I would hoped, a general history on the subject, but instead a socio-cultural study of the French people enduring German occupation.

As such it is a well-written and thorough book -- if possibly somewhat more than most readers would feel any need to know; personally, I would have found it a better read if it had been cut down to half its length, and it would lose nothing to me thereby. To be sure, scholars have good reason to be thorough, and overall I have to judge that the author did a very good job -- there's much fascinating material in it, for example a discussion of how de Gaulle was actually well to the Right of Petain. However, I have to give it three stars instead of four, which on its own merits it deserves, as a warning that this book is for advanced students of the topic and not so good for a novice.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinen takes the view that there are no easy answers, January 19, 2012

By 

robert fuller - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation (Paperback)

This is a very well researched and comprehensive book that does not purport to be a history of Vichy France or even a history of the French under the German (and very briefly, Allied) occupation. If you want a basic history of Vichy France, read Robert Paxton's classic, _Vichy France_. It will give you all of the background to better appreciate Vinen's work. Vinen sets out to dispel much mythology and stereotypes about French reaction to the occupation. Some conservatives joined the resistance, some socialists and communists backed Vichy, everyone made choices. He underlines that not everyone faced the same challenges and, thus, were not forced to make decisions. Only those in close proximity to the Germans were forced to decide how to accommodate themselves to their predicament. His discussion of the black market is especially nuanced and insightful. Almost everyone had to participate in it to some extent just to survive. Yes, this book is for advanced readers with some knowledge about Vichy France and the German occupation. It doesn't pretend to take on all subjects and gives only scant attention to many, such as political developments within the Vichy government. That's OK--there are other books for that. I highly recommend this work for its nuanced and sophisticated rendering of the French in dire straits.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Unfree French, January 11, 2012

By 

Kim Burdick (NEWARK, DE, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation (Paperback)

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If you are beginning a study of France in WWll, start with this book. This is the best general overview of Vichy France. It is comprehensive, carefully researched and unbiased.

I particularly appreciated Vinen's examination of the social upheavals caused both by occupation and by liberation.

Vinen's book will give you the underpinnings you need to understand the era. It is a suberb accompaniment to Sweet's lazer-sharp study of life in the 1940s in the town of Clermont-Ferrand: "Choices in Vichy France."

"The Unfree French" is definitely worth reading.

Kim Burdick
Stanton, Delaware