The Agony of France

The Agony of France is written in three parts in a thematic style to enable easy referencing both for the student of history and the general reader. The first part deals with the Defeat of France in 1940, examining scholarship over the last seventy years in order to extrapolate the major factors.

The second part explores Vichy France, the political Collaboration, and the various shades of collaborationism from the criminal and dedicated to that of sheer survival. This part looks at the problems of a modern Western democratic society suffering under a military occupation, the role of the French Church during this period, and the appalling circumstances surrounding anti-Semitism.

The third part explores the nature of French resistance, the role of de Gaulle, and finishes with the postwar recriminations and trials. Unlike many Anglo-Saxon histories, this book adopts a more sympathetic attitude towards the French plight, and examines the nature of de Gaulle’s myth-building that France liberated itself. The book demonstrates that historical mythology is part of every country’s history when seeking its own redemption from the past. It will be of use to the student of history, as well as a wider readership interested in the circumstances surrounding Vichy rule in France.