Marianne in Chains Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation

In France, the German occupation is called simply the "dark years." There were only the "good French" who resisted and the "bad French" who collaborated. Marianne in Chains, a broad and provocative history drawing on previously unseen archives, firsthand interviews, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, uncovers the complex truth of the time. Robert Gildea's groundbreaking study reveals the everyday life in the heart of occupied France; the pressing imperatives of work, food, transportation, and family obligations that led to unavoidable compromise and negotiation with the army of occupation. Robert Gildeais a professor of modern French history at the University of Oxford. His previous books includeFrance Since 1945andThe Past in French History. ForMarianne in Chainshe received the prestigious Wolfson History Prize and was a finalist for the British Academy Book Prize. He lives in Oxford, England. In France, the German occupation is still called simply the "dark years." It is remembered as a time of hunger, fear, cold, and the absence of freedom, when the French population was cruelly and consistently oppressed by the enemy. There were only the "good French" who resisted and the "bad French" who collaborated. YetMarianne in Chains, a broad and provocative new history, uncovers a rather different story, one in which the truth is more complex, and more humane. Drawing on previously unseen archives, firsthand interviews, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, Robert Gildea wholly reveals everyday life in the heart of occupied France. He describes the pressing imperatives of work, food, transportation, and family obligations that led to unavoidable compromise and negotiation with the army of occupation. In the process, he sheds light on such subjects as forced labor, the role of the Catholic Church, the "horizontal collaboration" between French women and German soldiers, and, most surprisingly, the ambivalent attitude of ordinary people toward the Resistance, which was often dismissed as a bunch if bandits who were militarily irrelevant. A brilliant work of reconstruction, a crucial work of scholarship, and at once thorough, challenging, and readable,Marianne in Chainsprovides a clear viewall these years later, and unobscured by romance or polemicsof the painful ambiguities of living under tyranny. "Stunning . . . Gildea, a professor of modern European history at Oxford, attempts to move 'beyond praise and blame' to explore the ever-shifting lines between accommodation and defiance, cynicism and loyalty, and prudence and altruism that the French negotiated through their ordeal. He succeeds brilliantly . . . In [this] nuanced and intricate work of historical reconstruction, Gildea has grappled heroically with the ambiguity at the heart of history and in the heart of man."Benjamin Schwarz,The Atlantic Monthly "Stunning . . . Gildea, a professor of modern European history at Oxford, attempts to move 'beyond praise and blame' to explore the ever-shifting lines between accommodation and defiance, cynicism and loyalty, and prudence and altruism that the French negotiated through their ordeal. He succeeds brilliantly . . . In [this] nuanced and intricate work of historical reconstruction, Gildea has grappled heroically with the ambiguity at the heart of history and in the heart of man."Benjamin Schwarz,The Atlantic Monthly "[A] carefully researched and richly nuanced study."Michael Kenney,The Boston Globe "To those trapped in the perennial resistance-versus-collaboration debate, Robert Gildea has done a great service in his new book."Alan Riding,The New York Times "After the liberation of France, the Resistance was glorified and the collaborators punished, but these convenient categories ob

Robert Gildea is a professor of modern French history at the University of Oxford. His previous books include France Since 1945 and The Past in French History. He lives in Oxford, England.