Table of Contents

Introduction - the neurosis. Part 1 Evolution of the syndrome: unfinished mourning (1944-1954);repressions (1954-1971); the broken mirror (1971-1974); obsession (after 1974) - Jewish memory; obsession (after 1974) - the world of politics. Part 2 Transmission of the syndrome: vectors of memory; diffuse memory. Appendices: chronology of events; French films and World War II.

Reviews

Succeeds as a practical demonstration, for a particularly vivid case, of how to study a people grappling with a past. It is remarkable how few similar works there are...One understands a historian's hesitation before the poorly documented and ill-defined wider popular memory as a subject. Rousso shows us, however, how dramatic and revealing this genre can be.--Robert O. Paxton "New York Review of Books "

This is an original and thought-provoking work, a 'must' for anyone interested in the political and cultural psychology of post-war France.--Nelly Wilson "Jewish Quarterly "

Rousso has set out to provide not just another narrative of "les annees noires"--the years of defeat, occupation, of the phantom 'French State' and the civil war--but a study of the way the Vichy episode has been perceived and perverted by the French ever since. The result is a brilliant and intemperate book that is also a tract for the times.

a study of the way the Vichy episode has been perceived and perverted by the French ever since. The result is a brilliant and intemperate book that is also a tract for the times.

before the poorly documented and ill-defined wider popular memory as a subject. Rousso shows us, however, how dramatic and revealing this genre can be.