French and Germans, Germans and French: A Personal Interpretation of France under Two Occupations, 1914-1918/1940-1944

by Richard Cobb

Overview

The noted historian Richard Cobb presents an engaging synthesis of research, combined with highly original observations and analyses of the war years in France. The reader is given access to a unique private chronicle of the relations between occupants and occupés, which provides the “I was there” understanding that is a hallmark of Cobb’s well-known ability to humanize history. The author characterizes this work as “an essay in interpretation and imagination, an evocation drawing heavily on literary, or semi-literary, sources and even on autobiography, rather than a straight piece of history. The book is about people, individuals, rather than about institutions and administration.” A recognized classic is now back in print.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512603378
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Series:	The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

RICHARD COBB, a professor of modern history at the University of Oxford, was regarded as one of the foremost historians of France. His numerous books have wielded a profound influence on the direction of French historiography.

Editorial Reviews

Richard Cobb makes the individual and the region the warp and woof of his tapestry of occupied France. . . . He has the imagination to see that soldiers, too, are as much the victims of an occupation’s restraints as are the occupied civilians.” —New York Review of Books


“A book that is both wise and delightful.”—New York Times


“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. . . . A splendid book for comprehending human kind.” —Economist


“The acuity of [Cobb’s] emotional insights could teach lessons to many a novelist. . . . And if the keenness of his intelligence were not enough, there is the caliber of his prose: Cobb writes superbly (or as he would prefer it, highly enjoyably).”

 —Boston Globe


“Cobb knows France and the French as well as any foreigner. He is a spellbinding raconteur. . . .It is remarkable how much ground Cobb’s short book covers, poking into aspects of life under the Occupation that most historians have ignored.”—Smithsonian


“He has a superb ability to humanise history, an engaging wit, and few can match him as a raconteur.”—Manchester Evening News

From the Publisher