Verdict on Vichy

Verdict on Vichy PDF

Author: Michael Curtis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-01-27

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1628724811

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This masterful book is the first comprehensive reappraisal of the Vichy France regime for over 20 years. France was occupied by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1944, and the exact nature of France's role in the Vichy years is only now beginning to come to light. One of the main reasons that the Vichy history is difficult to tell is that some of France's most prominent politicians, including President Mitterand, have been implicated in the regime. This has meant that public access to key documents has been denied and it is only now that an objective analysis is possible. The fate of France as an occupied country could easily have been shared by Britain, and it is this background element, which enhances our fascination with Vichy France. How would we have acted under similar circumstances? The divisions and repercussions of the Vichy years still resonate in France today, and whether you view the regime as a fascist dictatorship, an authoritarian offshoot of the Third Reich or an embodiment of heightened French nationalism, Curtis's rounded, incisive book will be seen as the standard work on its subject for many years. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

When France Fell

When France Fell PDF

Author: Michael S. Neiberg

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2021-10-19

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0674258568

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Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked US leaders rushed to back the Vichy governmentÑa fateful decision that nearly destroyed the AngloÐAmerican alliance. According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the Òmost shocking single eventÓ of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of the American responseÑa policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain. The successful Nazi invasion of France destabilized American plannersÕ strategic assumptions. At home, the result was huge increases in defense spending, the advent of peacetime military conscription, and domestic spying to weed out potential fifth columnists. Abroad, the United States decided to work with Vichy France despite its pro-Nazi tendencies. The USÐVichy partnership, intended to buy time and temper the flames of war in Europe, severely strained AngloÐAmerican relations. American leaders naively believed that they could woo men like Philippe PŽtain, preventing France from becoming a formal German ally. The British, however, understood that Vichy was subservient to Nazi Germany and instead supported resistance figures such as Charles de Gaulle. After the war, the choice to back Vichy tainted USÐFrench relations for decades. Our collective memory of World War II as a period of American strength overlooks the desperation and faulty decision making that drove US policy from 1940 to 1943. Tracing the key diplomatic and strategic moves of these formative years, When France Fell gives us a more nuanced and complete understanding of the war and of the global position the United States would occupy afterward.

Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944

Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 PDF

Author: Robert O. Paxton

Publisher:

Published: 1972

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13:

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Uncompromising, often startling, meticulously documented'this book is an account of the government, and the governed, of colaborationist France. Basing his work on captured German archives and contemporary materials rather than on self-serving postwar memoirs or war-trial testimony, Professor Paxton maps out the complex nature of the ill-famed Vichy government, showing that it in fact enjoyed mass participation. The majority of the Frenchmen in 1940 feared social disorder as the worse imaginable evil and rallied to support the State, thereby bringing about the betrayal of the Nation as a whole.

Three Against the Third Republic

Three Against the Third Republic PDF

Author: Michael Curtis

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-12-08

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1400879280

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This volume is a comparative study of the political thought of three writers who, between 1885 and 1914, were leaders in the counterrevolutionary movement in France. Maurice Barres was a nationalistic conservative; Charles Maurras, a classic reactionary; and Georges Sorel, a moralist and syndicalist. Different though the three men were in their conception of political order, they were in common opposed to liberal democracy as a system of government and to most of the ideology and institutions of the Third Republic. Because of their impact on the generation that guided France before World War I, and because many of their attitudes foreshadow later totalitarian programs, Sorel, Barres and Maurras have a significant place in any assessment of modern European political history. Originally published in 1959. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Our Vichy Gamble

Our Vichy Gamble PDF

Author: William Leonard Langer

Publisher:

Published: 1965

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13:

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"When France fell in 1940, the United States had to choose among three alternatives: to maintain relations with the Vichy Gamble and encourage resistance in this way; to disown Vichy and espouse the cause of de Gaulle. From a thorough study of all the relevant documents in the files of the state Department and other government sources, Professor Langer indicates why the United States chose the course it did. Our Vichy Gamble covers the entire history of Vichy France and the United States' relations with that government from the French surrender to the Germans in 1940 through the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942. American interests were vitally concerned when France fell. 'To help France militarily was out of the question. The first and foremost problem was to prevent Hitler's getting control of French fleet. If he were to secure it, his future operations against Britian would be so much easier. If Britian went under, we ourselves would soon be challenged along our own coasts." The State Department began to negotiate with Petain and Weygand reasonably confident that these two old World War I heroes would keep their word and refuse to collaborate against the free world. But when Pierre Laval - who detested the Bristish and openly espoused the Nazis - replaced Baudoin as Foreign Minister and the decision as to who would organize French resistance in North Africa became Urgent, public opinion in the United States was aroused. Many were dismayed, feeling we were confusing the French, not comforting them; that the United States was making a mistake not to support de Gaulle and the Free French. Professor Langer shows that in fac the United States had little choice, even to the necessity of working with Admiral Darlan, who sympathized with the Germans almost as openly as Laval. And he concludes that "for intelligence purposes, if for no others, the Vichy policy was completely justified" - Publisher.

Should Israel Exist?

Should Israel Exist? PDF

Author: Michael Curtis

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781933267302

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In his unique and indomitable style, Dr. Michael Curtis brings yet another clear and concise pre�sentation of the reality facing Israel and the world. Utilizing the metaphor of the miner's canary, used to give warning to the presence of poisonous gas, Curtis deftly lays out for the reader how the attitudes, lies and false dealings of the international community are used against Israel, and suggests they are not isolated in their impact only on Israel. Rather, they are but a canary's warning to the rest of the Western, demo�cratic world of their own impending danger. To those who are unaware of the multifarious and insidious ways in which antisemitism rears it ugly head (and that includes all who receive their news through the major news networks), the information laid out by Dr. Curtis will have the initial impression of being surreal. For the sake of Israel and the rest of the free world, it is hoped that the initial impression is short-lived.

Choices in Vichy France

Choices in Vichy France PDF

Author: John Sweets

Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press

Published: 1986-03-13

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0195037510

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Basing his work on French and German archives as well as on interviews and private correspondence, Sweets examines the French response to the Vichy government and Nazi occupation by studying Vichy's application of their experiment to the city of Clermont-Ferrand.

Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East

Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East PDF

Author: Michael Curtis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-08

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 135151072X

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Will animosity towards Jews and the State of Israel never end? This book ventures to rectify the misrepresentations, propaganda, obsessions, and falsifications widely disseminated in the media and public discourse, explaining the motivations behind them. The issues Michael Curtis scrutinizes are complicated and controversial, sometimes even baffling, but he reviews them in as objective and rigorous a manner as possible. Curtis divides his arguments into five key areas: political correctness and the obsessive attack on Israel; the surprising and disturbing rise of antisemitism; the Arab world and the Islamist threat; the Palestinian narrative; and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The first section focuses on the censorious attitude toward Israel taken by many in the international community. A second section consists of essays on the increase of contemporary antisemitism in Arab and Muslim countries as well as European democracies. In the third section, the author addresses changes in the Arab world, the threat of Iranian ambitions, the new alliance of Sunni Islamist states, and the growing strength and danger of Islamic fundamentalism and extremist behavior. His fourth section, on the Palestinian Narrative, details the acceptance by many critics of Israel and the international media of the Palestinian narrative of victimhood. Finally, the section on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict details the continuing struggle within the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians. This book is a must read for historians, political scientists, Jewish studies scholars, and all those interested in one of the most volatile and controversial regions in the world today.

Commemorating the Holocaust

Commemorating the Holocaust PDF

Author: Rebecca Clifford

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0191669288

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Commemorating the Holocaust reveals how and why the Holocaust came to play a prominent role in French and Italian political culture in the period after the end of the Cold War. By charting the development of official, national Holocaust commemorations in France and Italy, Rebecca Clifford explains why the wartime persecution of Jews, a topic ignored or marginalized in political discourse through much of the Cold War period, came to be a subject of intense and often controversial debate in the 1990s and 2000s. How and why were official Holocaust commemorations created? Why did the drive for states to 'remember' their roles in the persecution of Jewish populations accelerate only after the collapse of the Cold War? Who pressed for these commemorations, and what motivated their activism? To what extent was the discourse surrounding national Holocaust commemorations really about the genocide at all? Commemorating the Holocaust explores these key questions, challenging commonly-held assumptions about the origins of and players involved in the creation of Holocaust memorial days. Clifford draws conclusions that shed light both on the state of Holocaust memory in France and Italy, and more broadly on the collective memory of World War II in contemporary Europe.

Cruel Crossing

Cruel Crossing PDF

Author: Edward Stourton

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2023-11-07

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1504087011

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A chronicle of the perilous European mountain escape route used during World War II, with epic stories from survivors and their families. After the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940, an underground network was established to help British servicemen escape German-occupied Europe. As the war progressed, others began using the secret route as well, traveling to the south of France, over the Pyrenees mountains, and into neutral Spain. The Chemin de la Liberté runs forty miles across the central Pyrenees. Since 1994, it has been hiked each July to commemorate those who made the courageous journey during the Nazi occupation of France. BBC Radio presenter Edward Stourton made the trek in 2011, and from his fellow hikers, he uncovered amazing stories of wartime bravery and perseverance. In Cruel Crossing, Stourton draws on interviews with survivors, as well as family members of those who were there, to paint a history of this little-known aspect of World War II. It is colored by tales of hardship from soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, persecuted Jews fleeing Hitler and Vichy France, and bold resistance fighters aiding their escape. There are scrambles across rooftops in the dead of night, drops from speeding trains, treachery, murder, romance, and of course, heroism. These personal stories offer a dramatic and moving trip through the past, preserving the memories of those who endured so much to gain back their freedom. Praise for Cruel Crossing “Stourton writes evocatively and with sensitivity of the people who made the arduous trek. . . . An engaging collection of tales.” —Daily Express “In Mr. Stourton’s hands, the Pyrenees become a grim amphitheatre for heroism and betrayal, collusion and rebellion. . . . Cruel Crossing recaptures much of the adventure and the fun, as well as the horror and the bitterness, as it brilliantly conjures up the voices of the past.” —Country Life “Heart-breaking and breath-taking . . . thoroughly moving and very readable.” —Simon Mawer, author of The Glass Room “An important book packed with poignant stories, remarkable characters and uncomfortable truths.” —Clare Mulley, author of The Spy Who Loved