Description
Book SynopsisPresents an examination of the political and social construction of gender under the Vichy regime. This book argues that the regime used symbolic violence to reshape a liberal culture once based on individual rights into one of deference to hierarchical authority.
Trade Review“This is an outstanding book—historical sociology and social history at its most original. Richly documented and drawing on a wide range of materials to produce the most incisive reading I’ve seen of this moment in French history,
Vichy and the Eternal Feminine is a model for historical studies of the formation and construction of social and political identity.”—Joan Scott, author of
Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of ManTable of ContentsIntroduction
Part 1: The Hypnotic Power of Punishment
1. Writers of the Defeat in Search of Eternity
2. The Church and Feminine Contrition
3. The Demographic Sin
Part 2: The Culture of Sacrifice
4. Violence and State Propaganda
5. Heritage and Incarnations of Catholic Feminine Culture
6. Family Imperialism and Feminine Subjection
Part 3: Biological Order and Social Order
7. “Natural” Hierarchies: Sexual Predestination and Social Predestination
8. Control of Bodies
Conclusion
Notes
Index
