Marianne in chains
First sentence
On 18 June 1940, as the recently formed government of Marshal Petain sued for an armistice, General de Gaulle, broadcasting on the BBC, famously told the French people that though the battle of France was lost, the war-a world war-was not over: "Crushed by superior mechanical force today, we can conquer in the future by virtue of a superior mechanical force...
Description
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. - Publisher.