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9780190499549

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There is much to be admired in Werth's Deposition. While the immediate context and description of a rural village at war is valuable in and of itself, Werth's musings on politics, the press, and human nature add a dimension that makes this more than a chronicle of shortages and daily life in a small town. Werth is both an observer and a participant in the history unfurling before him. He captures the ambiguity, ambivalence, and endless waiting associated with the war as it was happening. With the advantage of hindsight, scholars have written about the topics that Werth experienced and recorded in real time with the extraordinary talent of an ethnographer....David Ball's highly readable translation of this remarkable record is a welcome addition for scholars of the Vichy period and suitable for classroom use. --Shannon L. Fogg, H-France Review

"""There is much to be admired in Werth's Deposition. While the immediate context and description of a rural village at war is valuable in and of itself, Werth's musings on politics, the press, and human nature add a dimension that makes this more than a chronicle of shortages and daily life in a small town. Werth is both an observer and a participant in the history unfurling before him. He captures the ambiguity, ambivalence, and endless waiting associated with the war as it was happening. With the advantage of hindsight, scholars have written about the topics that Werth experienced and recorded in real time with the extraordinary talent of an ethnographer....David Ball's highly readable translation of this remarkable record is a welcome addition for scholars of the Vichy period and suitable for classroom use.""--Shannon L. Fogg, H-France Review"

Author Information

Léon Werth (1878-1955) was a prominent French-Jewish writer, art critic, and close friend to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry . A prominent commentator on French society during both World Wars, Werth spent the years of the Second World War in hiding from the Nazis, composing Déposition.About the translator: David Ball is Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, Smith College. His translations include the Henri Michaux anthology, winner of the MLA's prize for literary translation, and Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944, winner of French-American Foundation Translation Prize for Nonfiction.

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