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9780192806185

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Diamond has providedus with a compelling account of the exodus, one which vividly brings to life a period of profound upheaval in French society. Lynne Taylor, The English Historical Review The strength of Diamond's book is to convey the poignancy, drama and ambiguity of an experience that directly touched the lives of many more people than the Resistance ever did... her readable book superbly conveys the strange unreality of those hot summer days of 1940. Julian Jackson, Times Higher Education Supplement A fascinating story, rich in biblical drama, and one that has not been previously told in English. [Diamond] is excellent at describing the political machinations that culminated in Paul Reynaud's resignation...[a] valuable book. Walter Cook, Tribune Gripping reading. Max Hastings, Sunday Times (Culture) Hanna Diamond...tells the story vividly and even-handedly. [This] book benefits greatly from the vast number of r witness memoirs. Allan Massie, Literary Review A vivid and poignant account... a forgotten moment of the devastation of war brought to life. Robert Gildea, author of 'Marianne in Chains' Diamond has an excellent eye for the striking detail...as a work of history, this book is an invaluable account of the fall of France, seen through the lens of the sufferings of its citizens. Carmen Callil, Financial Times (FT Magazine) a major contribution Modern and Contemporary France, Volume 15, Number 4

Diamond has providedus with a compelling account of the exodus, one which vividly brings to life a period of profound upheaval in French society. Lynne Taylor, The English Historical Review The strength of Diamond's book is to convey the poignancy, drama and ambiguity of an experience that directly touched the lives of many more people than the Resistance ever did... her readable book superbly conveys the strange unreality of those hot summer days of 1940. Julian Jackson, Times Higher Education Supplement A fascinating story, rich in biblical drama, and one that has not been previously told in English. [Diamond] is excellent at describing the political machinations that culminated in Paul Reynaud's resignation...[a] valuable book. Walter Cook, Tribune Gripping reading. Max Hastings, Sunday Times (Culture) Hanna Diamond...tells the story vividly and even-handedly. [This] book benefits greatly from the vast number of r witness memoirs. Allan Massie, Literary Review A vivid and poignant account... a forgotten moment of the devastation of war brought to life. Robert Gildea, author of 'Marianne in Chains' Diamond has an excellent eye for the striking detail...as a work of history, this book is an invaluable account of the fall of France, seen through the lens of the sufferings of its citizens. Carmen Callil, Financial Times (FT Magazine) a major contribution Modern and Contemporary France, Volume 15, Number 4

For many French people in 1940, the arrival of the German army meant the collapse of civilization. Seven decades later, the specifics of that collapse are largely forgotten; this book is a remedy.When the Wehrmacht crossed the Maginot Line in May 1940, most Parisians, remembering the Marne a generation before, assumed that the theoretically superior French army would turn the invaders back. The confidence in victory that the media and the government had projected until the very last minute, writes Diamond (French History/Univ. of Bath), meant that when they finally realized that the Germans were likely to reach Paris, people had a very long way to fall. Some four million persons in the Paris region abandoned the city and its suburbs, choking every road out of the capital and blocking necessary military traffic. The situation was much the same throughout what would be called Occupied France, leaving the population of Vichy burdened with millions of refugees. The Germans, writes Diamond, urged these people to return: Not only did their absence make the German occupiers look bad, but the missing French also constituted a needed labor force in the grand plan to integrate France's economy into that of the Reich. Diamond recounts the terror and confusion of the first days of this mass migration, considers contemporary social movements and conventions (for instance, many refugees refused to flee to the colonies in North Africa, she writes, because these were considered places for those who had committed some kind of indiscretion ), and looks at the complexities involved in the German campaign to organize repatriation, which was ultimately successful. Interestingly, Diamond also assesses the lessons of that mass flight, which the British government studied closely as an example of what not to do when their turn came. How can we remember what we do not know? asks one French scholar. Diamond's book ably addresses these long-ago events, which merit remembrance. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Hanna Diamond is Senior Lecturer in French History in the Department of European Studies at the University of Bath. She lived and taught in Paris for many years and has spent her career researching into the lives of the French people during the twentieth century. Her previous book, Women and the Second World War in France 1939-48: choices and constraints is also based on personal narratives and oral history. It was the first to explore the range of women's experiences of the war. She is currently working on a micro history of a mining community in southern France.

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