Bringing together key international scholars, Vichy, Resistance, Liberation: New Perspectives on Wartime France offers original insight into this critical period of modern France. It shifts the focus away from straightforward political history to reflect the current interest in socio-cultural aspects of the Second World War and breaks down traditional chronological barriers.In seeking to understand war from a social perspective, the contributors focus on individuals and communities. Wars are moments which forever alter the emphasis of social expression. Rumours emerge as a major aspect of daily life. Wars are also periods offering new possibilities to individuals. Several contributors explore the lives of previously little known individuals in Vichy France Paulette Bernge, Daniel Gurin, Georges Mauco, Franois Perroux. Other contributors emphasize some of the forgotten actors of the period, most notably the anarchists. Other contributors uncover new information about womens experience in Vichy France.Vichy, Resistance, Liberation moves away from the trend of synthesis history and presents path-breaking research and new trajectories of interest in the field. The collection pays tribute to the work of H.R. Kedward, the world-renowned specialist on Occupied France.

One Historian and His Occupation: Rod Kedward --Simon Kitson, University of Birmingham, and Hanna Diamond, University of Bath) * H.R.Kedward: An Oral Profile--Martin Evans, University of Portsmouth * Part I: Collective Trajectories * Pacifists into Resisters? A Biographical Approach to Women in Wartime France: The Peace Petitioners of 1938--Sin Reynolds, University of Stirling * 'Quite simply Colonel.' Gender and World War II--Luc Capdevila, Universit de Rennes, Franois Rouquet, Universit de Rennes, Paula Schwarz, Middlebury College), Fabrice Virgili, IHTP-CNRS, Paris, Danile Voldman, IHTP-CNRS, Paris * Conflicting Identities in a Mining Community on Strike 1930-1950--Hanna Diamond, University of Bath * Talk Which Was Not Idle: Rumours in Wartime France--Jean-Marie Guillon, MMSH, Universit d'Aix-Marseille * Grammatical Notes: Surviving, and Memories of Jewish Life in Nice, 1939-1943--Miranda Pollard, University of Georgia * 'Fraternity among Listeners'. The BBC and French Resistance: Evidence from Refugees--Martyn Cornick, University of Birmingham * 'Meeting Private Ryan': A Franco-American Liberation Community-Hilary Footitt, University of Stirling * Part II: Individual Trajectories * Film and Cultural Demobilization after the Great War: The Two Versions of J'Accuse by Abel Gance (1918 and 1938)--John Horne Trinity College, Dublin * 'Like a Wisp of Straw amidst the Raging Elements.' Daniel Gurin in the Second World War--Dave Berry, University of Loughborough * Mal parti, bien arriv: The Strange Story of Franois Perroux --Julian Jackson, University of London * Homecomings: Paulette Bernge, Scientific Management and the Return to the Land in Vichy--Jackie Clarke, University of Southampton * Demography at Liberation: Using History to Forget the Past --Karen Adler, University of Nottingham * Rod Kedward and His Bibliography

Dr. Hanna Diamond is Senior Lecturer in French History in the European Studies Department, University of Bath.
Dr. Simon Kitson is Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Birmingham.