Vichy France and Everyday Life: Confronting the Challenges of Wartime, 1939–1945 ed. by Lindsey Dodd, and David Lees (review)

As Dodd and Lees put it in their succinct introduction, the 13 chapters of this edited volume direct "attention to less well-known people (and indeed unknown people), to interpersonal interactions and to emotions at a broadly personal rather than national scale" (5). Instead of focusing on the Vichy Regime's policies, on major military battles, or on the activities of committed résistants or collaborators, this study of the daily lives of ordinary inhabitants in occupied France is devoted to "a set of experiences of civilians on a home front: food, clothing, security, family life, government intervention—these were all affected because France was a battleground for the Allied-Axis conflict as well as a nation struggling against Occupation" (6). Hence the 1939–45 periodization rather than the more common 1940–44, which is limited to the duration of the Vichy Regime. The book is divided into two parts: "Coping and Helping in Wartime France" and "Confrontation and Challenge in Wartime France." Some of the articles were originally written in French, but have been translated into English. The "everyday life" of the title is reflected in the choice of topics: children's games, schools, films, charitable organizations, urban vs. rural life, etc. As is customary in the case of a book that includes contributions from several authors, each reader will find some contributions more interesting or useful than others. The following topics were of particular interest to this reviewer: the massive and complex task of trying to maintain a viable educational system for children ("Coping in the Classroom: Adapting Schools to Wartime" by Matthieu Devigne); how ordinary workers reacted when the French railway system was put to the service of the German war effort ("The Daily Lives of French Railway Workers" by Sylvère Aït Amour); the immense yet insufficient efforts of charitable organizations, both state-sponsored ("Helping the Most Needy: The Role of the Secours National" by Jean-Pierre Le Crom) and private ("The American Friends Service Committee and Wartime Aid to Families" by Shannon L. Fogg); the plight of prisoners of war who came from French colonies ("Colonial Prisoners of War and French Civilians" by Sarah Frank); the importance and varied uses of cinema during the Occupation ("Vichy Cinema and the Everyday" by Steve Wharton); and individual case studies ("Reconstructing the Daily Life of a Lyonnaise Family" by Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen and "Madeleine Blaess: An Emotional History of a Long Liberation" by Wendy Michallat). This book's emphasis on the daily lives of ordinary people and the multiplicity of its points of view provide reminders that there was a wide diversity of reactions to, and methods of, coping with the war and the German occupation.