Description
Vichy's Double Bind advances a significant new interpretation of French collaboration during the Second World War. Arguing that the path to collaboration involved not merely Nazi Germany but Fascist Italy, it suggests that the Vichy French government was caught in a double bind. On the one hand, many of the threats to France's territory, colonial empire and power came from Rome as well as Berlin. On the other, Vichy was caught between the irreconcilable yet inescapable positions of the two Axis governments. Unable to resolve the conflict, Vichy sought to play the two Axis powers against each other. By exploring French dealings with Italy at diplomatic, military and local levels in France and its colonial empire, this book reveals the multi-dimensional and multi-directional nature of Vichy's policy. It therefore challenges many enduring conceptions of collaboration with reference to Franco-German relations and offers a fresh perspective on debates about Vichy France and collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Part I. Diplomacy and Politics: 1. Sowing the Seeds: From the Abyssinia Crisis to the Armistice; 2. Pivoting Between Alignments: July to December 1940; 3. Playing Rome against Berlin: December 1940 to March 1942; 4. Compliance and Defiance: April 1942 to September 1943; 5. The Absence of Collaborationism; Part II. Local Encounters: 6. The Menace Within: July 1940 to November 1942; 7. Annexation by Stealth: Italian Occupation from June 1940 to November 1942; 8. Confronting Italian Occupation: November 1942 to September 1943; Conclusion; Bibliography.
