Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation Paperback – Import, 1 June 2004

This is a great resource to learn about life in France during and after the Occupation. Well researched with a lively writing style.

This is one of a selection of books chosen to give me an insight in to the French psyche.

Ce n'est pas un travail d'historien sérieux mais plutôt une histoire reconstituée par un romantique.Il est complètement à coté de la vérité voire en complet contre-sens sur des points que je connais très bien.

This book was so fragmented that it was difficult to pull the broader picture out of it. It lacked cohesion, presenting as separate chapters important details which could have been woven into a much more readable whole, a much better flow.The general belief that the French collaborated with the Germans during the occupation was explored in various shades of grey but never really pinned down in black and white---I'm not sure if by the end of it, I was convinced one way or the other, although that little practical distinction was made between occupied and Vichy France did lend more overall credibility to the general collaboration idea. Endless stories with so much boring personal detail contrasted cooperation with defiance, plenty with privation, acceptance with imposition.The French were definitely pictured as opportunists, opening their businesses, homes and bodies to avoid the potential of brutal plunder, and all the while covertly cheating their often gullible captors in every way they could. Being stationed in France and away from the harsh battlefront was the creme assignment, and while indulging themselves they often fell unwitting prey to almost anything the French could come up with. On the other hand, the Germans were presented as basically respectful of the French through common ancestry and religion, and honor for their heroic actions during WW1---although the military reasons for being there were never too far below the surface, despite the free-wheeling lifestyle they were experiencing in France.The concluding chapter wound up being the most interesting part of the book, since it did manage to tie it all together fairly well, considering the amount of detail to work with. I think the book could probably have been half as long and much more appealing if Gildea could just have kept it on track rather than digressing into endless minutiae.

Good book by strong academic on the war years in France. Very nuanced study of how French government dealt with the Germans. It reveals that the relationship was more complex then the popular myth maintains. It is dense and full of details, but the biggest problem is it concentrates on the original occupation zone and has little to say about Vichy France. It would have been helpful to know how the south dealt with the occupation after 1942.