Description
Book SynopsisFrom 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 has dealt with
les années noires. Specifically, he studies what the French have chosen to remember—and to conceal.
Trade ReviewRousso 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 *
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 *
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 *
Table of ContentsForeword by Stanley Hoffmann Abbreviations Introduction: The Neurosis Part 1: EVOLUTION OF THE SYNDROME 1. Unfinished Mourning (1944-1954) 2. Repressions (1954-1971) 3. The Broken Mirror (1971-1974) 4. Obsession (after 1974): Jewish Memory 5. Obsession (after 1974): The World of Politics Part 2: TRANSMISSION OF THE SYNDROME 6. Vectors of Memory 7. Diffuse Memory Conclusion Appendix 1: Chronology of Events Appendix 2: French Films and World War II Bibliography Notes Acknowledgments Index
