Unit name | France at War 1940-1944: Experience and Aftermath (Level C Special Topic) |
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Unit code | HIST14000 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | C/4 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Beaumont |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites | |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
During the Second World War, France was defeated, occupied, and divided. Beyond the glorified exploits of the resistance, the period is generally characterised by national humiliation, social upheaval, material hardship, and racial persecution. Small wonder, then, that it is common to refer to the period as ‘les années noires,’ or ‘the dark years.’ And since Liberation in 1944 the consequences of the conflict have made themselves felt in numerous controversies centring on the Vichy regime, collaboration with Nazi Germany, and Jewish persecution, as well as the role and scale of the resistance. This special topic traces the political, social, and cultural history of war, Occupation, and Liberation, before examining the tortured memory of the war in contemporary French society. As well as engaging with historiographical debate, we will explore this topic through a range of sources, including films, images, and the Internet.
By the end of the unit students should have:
10x 2 hour weekly seminars
1 x 2 hour exam
J.-P. Azéma, From Munich to the Liberation 1938-1944 (1984)
H. Diamond, Women and the Second World War in France 1939-1948 (1999)
S. Farmer, Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane (1999)
S. Fishman et al (eds.), France at War: Vichy and the Historians (2000)
R.Gildea, Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation of France 1940-45 (2002)
R.Golsan, Vichy’s Afterlife: History and Counterhistory in Postwar France (2000)
J. Jackson, France: The Dark Years 1940-1944 (2001)
R.Kedward, In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France 1942-1944 (1993)
R. O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order 1940-44 (1972)
H. Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944 (1991)
R. Vinen,The Unfree French: Life under the Occupation (2006)