The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France Since 1944 - Softcover

Rousso, Henry; Hoffmann, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067493539X ISBN 13: 9780674935396

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1994

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 provocative study, Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation--a nation where reality and myth commingle to confound understanding--has dealt with les ann es noires. Specifically, he studies what the French have chosen to remember--and to conceal.

Review:

This is an original and thought-provoking work, a 'must' for anyone interested in the political and cultural psychology of post-war France.--Nelly Wilson "Jewish Quarterly "

Succeeds as a practical demonstration, for a particularly vivid case, of how to study a people grappling with a past. It is remarkable how few similar works there are... One understands a historian's hesitation before the poorly documented and ill-defined wider popular memory as a subject. Rousso shows us, however, how dramatic and revealing this genre can be.--Robert O. Paxton "New York Review of Books "

Rousso has set out to provide not just another narrative of les années noires--the years of defeat, occupation, of the phantom 'French State' and the civil war--but a study of the way the Vichy episode has been perceived and perverted by the French ever since. The result is a brilliant and intemperate book that is also a tract for the times.--The Economist

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.

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 067493539X
• ISBN 13: 9780674935396
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 398