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

This book was such an important text in its field that I feel it deserves five stars even though I disagree with some of its findings. The French talk of a 'Paxtonian Revolution' to describe the effect this book had on the historiography. Along with Eberhard Jackel's work, Paxton suggested that collaboration was not something which was imposed on the French by the Germans but rather something which the French government actively... Read Full Review

Robert Paxton is the supreme authority on the Vichy regime. This, his seminal work, was originally published in the 1970s and has been updated with a new preface. Despite the availability of additional data, the book stands with very few qualifications as originally written. Vichy, despite the claims of it's many apologists, neither protected nor served France and the French, with the exception of various professional elites,... Read Full Review

I used this book as the main source for a term paper I recently wrote on Vichy France. Although it is now a bit dated-it was originally published in 1972-it was a groundbreaking work when it was first published. With this work, Mr. Paxton destroyed the myth of the massive French Resistance to the Germans that was propagated for many years after the war, mostly by the French themselves. He thoroughly describes how it was France,... Read Full Review

This book was first written in 1972 when the fifty-year seal on Vichy documents was still in effect, and has been updated since. But Paxton did a very good job of gathering good material from Nazi archives and others to deliver a book which required very little revision once more documents became available. The book was explosive when first published because it shattered the Hollywood myth of brave French resistance fighters... Read Full Review

paxton's book was a breakthrough in that it showed to what a huge extent the vichy regime's odious policies weren't simply imposed by the germans, but were carrying out willingly and represented the revenge of right-wing, catholic, nationalistic france against the left, unions, and jews and other foreigners. but at times the book goes a little too far and borders on cheap anti-frenchness. his denunciations of the vichy... Read Full Review