An extraordinary history of French lives under occupation in the First and Second World Wars, this is an intimate, unforgettable meditation on the strange mixture of compromise and betrayal, collaboration and resistance that marks defeat, written by one of the greatest historians of France.

'A splendid book for comprehending human kind ... Cobb has a strong sense of how ordinary life has to go on, even through disasters, and a sensitivity for what it was like at the time, matched by a gift for the telling phrase' Economist

'Prophet of the past, Richard Cobb is a visionary' New York Review of Books

'His France - urban, northern, provincial, pedestrian, noisy, unpuritanical, festive - was in contrast to, and predicated upon, another France: bureaucratic, official, suburban, safe' Julian Barnes

A magnificent account of Occupied France in both the First and Second World Wars.

About the Author
Richard Cobb (1919-96) CBE was a British historian and essayist, and professor at the University of Oxford. He was the author of numerous influential works about the history of France, particularly the French Revolution.

Reviews
Richard Cobb is a visionary. His books will take you on an extraordinary intellectual and emotional journey. * The New York Review of Books *
His France - urban, northern, provincial, pedestrian, noisy, unpuritanical, festive - was in contrast to, and predicated upon, another France: bureaucratic, official, suburban, safe, rule - crazy, scared. -- Julian Barnes
Cobb was a true historian of life 'from below', using archival evidence to bring alive the reality - and the suffering - of ordinary people's existence. -- Geoffrey Wheatcroft * New Statesman *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241351314
Author Richard Cobb
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 202g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 16mm