Vichy France

The History of Nazi Germany's Occupation of France During World War II

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: William Crockett

Emerging from France's catastrophic 1940 defeat like a bedraggled and rather sinister phoenix, the French State – better known to history as Vichy France or the Vichy Regime after its spa-town capital, stands in history as a unique and bizarre creation of German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler's European conquests. A patchwork of paradoxes and contradictions, the Vichy Regime maintained a quasi-independent French nation for some time after the Third Reich invasion until the Germans decided to include it in their occupation zone.

Headed by a French war hero of World War I, Marshal Philippe Petain, and his later Prime Minister Pierre Laval, Vichy France displayed strong right-wing, conservative, and authoritarian tendencies. Nevertheless, it never lapsed fully into fascism until the Germans arrived to reduce its role to little more than a mask over their own dominion. Petain carried out several major initiatives in an effort to counteract the alleged decadence of modern life and to restore the strength and virtues of the French "race". Accordingly, he received willing support from more conservative elements of society, even some factions within the Catholic Church. Following Case Anton - the takeover of the unoccupied area by the Germans - native French fascist elements also emerged.

While the French later disowned the Vichy government with considerable vehemence, evidence such as fairly broad-based popular support prior to Case Anton suggests a somewhat different story. The Petain government expressed one facet of French culture and thought. Its conservative, imperialistic nature did not represent the widespread love of "liberty, fraternity, and equality" also deeply ingrained in French thinking, but neither did it constitute a complete divergence from a national history that produced such famous authoritarians as Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte.

©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2016 Charles River Editors

Well Researched But Poorly Narrated

The short book reads like a Masters level dissertation. It is well researched & presents a very important piece of WWII history with a scholarly touch. If you're looking for a brief overview of the Vichy regime, this book is an excellent choice.

But be warned, Mr. Crockett's narration is awful. You will have to fight through his constant mispronunciation of vocabulary, both common & academic, his well intended over annunciation and amateur-hour voice affectations, indistinguishable from one character to the next, during all historical quotes.

Honestly, if I hadn't been so eager to dive into this subject, I would have requested a refund because the book is almost unlistenable due to performance.

Short but informative

Short but informative. Horrible narration. The narrator hasn't a clue on how to pronounce French names, can't even pronounce the name of De Gaulle correctly (most people in the English speaking world can, but he can't). He thinks that the French roll their "r's," which they don't, but he pretends he can speak French.

Automaton voice

The story, which I was anxious to hear, was lost due to the mechanical, monotone voice and all it's mispronunciations.
The history that did come through seemed interesting. I suggest selecting a different book or different reader.

Some good info get a real narrator next time

Obvious stuffed full of allied and Jewish propaganda but some good info all the same. The narrator is obviously a robot so it’s terrible mispronouncing a lot of words and names

THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH VICHY GOVERNMENT

This Audible selection is a short history of Vichy France. A result of the Fall of France to the Nazi military. It is a good overview of Vichy's history, its main players and life in Vichy, France. I found the performance by William Crockett below par. The presentation was mechanical and sounded computer generated. Words were mispronounced and dialogue seemed speeded up via some type of processing.