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Showing posts with label Robert Paxton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Paxton. Show all posts

Thursday, January 08, 2009

La France de Vichy

I read this book for three reasons. Firstly, I had to write a fiche de lecture in French on a book written in another language (aka either German or English for me). Secondly, I am doing an exposé (oral presentation) tomorrow about Vichy. Thirdly, the book is considered the classic on Vichy-France, it changed perceptions of France under German domination significantly (in France in any case) and after my disappointing book written by a Communist I felt an outsider's point of view would be interesting. The book kept its promise, a really good and interesting reading, it took me 2 days and some, but was decidedly worth it. My French teacher didn't really believe me that I had simply read it because it interested me, which is quite ironic since it had been on my reading list for a while, but whatever. I'll simply write another summary, not like I don't read enough books.

The text is in French because I had written it for my class and just a tad too long for me to translate, but I assume most non-French speakers don't really care enough about Vichy and German occupation here to read even a two-page summary anyway.