40 Million Pétainists - Book 2 by Henri Amouroux

40 MILLION PÉTAINISTS

June 1940. France collapses. Yet, 40 million French people acclaim Pétain.

How could a people traumatized by defeat place their trust in a regime that would betray them? Henri Amouroux answers this question with rare rigor and humanity — giving voice to ordinary French people, not just the great figures of History.

This second volume of The Great History of the French under the Occupation is the essential book to understand not what the leaders decided, but what the people experienced, felt, and chose — or endured.

40 million pétainists is the second volume of the monumental series The Great History of the French under the Occupation by Henri Amouroux.

JUNE 1940 - JUNE 1941: THE MYTH OF THE MARSHAL SAVIOR

This essential work explores:

• The armistice of June 22, 1940: The French defeat and the signing at Rethondes
• The cult of Marshal Pétain: How 40 million French people acclaimed the victor of Verdun
• The establishment of the Vichy regime: The National Revolution and the French State
• Pierre Laval and collaboration: The beginnings of the collaboration policy with Germany
• Daily life under the Occupation: Rationing, tickets, black market, and resourcefulness
• The first anti-Semitic measures: The October 1940 Statute on Jews
• The free zone and the occupied zone: A France divided in two
• The beginnings of the Resistance: The first acts of refusal and disobedience

Henri Amouroux reveals with subtlety how nearly all French people, traumatized by defeat, initially placed their hope in Marshal Pétain. An essential analysis to understand this period where the myth of the savior masks the realities of collaboration and the Occupation.

📚 OTHER VOLUMES IN THE SERIES:

• Book 1: The People of Disaster - Phoney War and Collapse 1939-1940
• Book 3: The Good Days of the Collaborators - Collaboration 1941-1942
• Book 4: The Awakened People - French Resistance 1943
• Book 5: Passions and Hatreds - Divided France 1942
• Book 6: The Ruthless Civil War - 1943-1944
• Book 7: A Spring of Death and Hope - Landing 1944
• Book 8: Joys and Sorrows of the Liberated People - Liberation 1944
• Book 9: Settling Scores - Purge 1944-1945
• Book 10: The Page Not Yet Turned - Post-war 1945
• Books 11 & 12: To Put an End to Vichy - Trials and Memory

📖 ALSO DISCOVER OTHER WORKS BY HENRI AMOUROUX:

• Pétain before Vichy - The Marshal of Verdun
• June 18, 1940 - General de Gaulle’s Appeal
• Life of the French under the Occupation

Print edition on demand - delivered by Chronopost. Free delivery in France. Also available in digital and PDF formats.