Memory at the front
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received little serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role during the Occupation. Le 14 juillet was the occasion when Vichy, the collaborationists and the Resistance each chose to glorify, qualify or condemn the Revolution. Their respective selected symbols, words, and ceremonies projected narratives of the proper French past and visions for the postwar future that competed for legitimacy. Each year, this anniversary also served to gauge the French public’s response to the conflicting manipulations of the Revolution’s memory, thereby becoming a vital testing ground for the political direction of the nation. Ultimately, the evolution of the holiday’s meaning during the Occupation period had consequences that reached well into the post-war era.
Choices in Vichy France: The French Under Nazi Occupation
Films like The Sorrow and the Pity and Lacombe Lucien, as well as recent scholarship, have replaced the old Gaullist myth of Nazi-occupied France and "a nation of resisters" with a new myth of "a nation of collaborators." John Sweets's provocative assessment challenges both stereotypes. From evidence gathered at Clermont-Ferrand, the largest town near Vichy, the Occupation capitol, Sweets found the French far less devoted to Petain than some have argued, and far more supportive of de Gaulle than has been suspected. The New Order was emphatically rejected by most of the French, he concludes, and the numbers involved in the Resistance were larger than has been recognized by previous accounts. Choices in Vichy France is a compelling work of social history. Drawing on extensive archival research, interviews, and private correspondence, Sweets reconstructs the experiences of the individual men and women in Clermont-Ferrand to understand the dilemmas that Occupation set before them. Sweets found that everything was made difficult and complex by the Occupation; few decisions were simple and many had potentially serious consequences. He concludes that our stereotyped notions of "resistance" and "collaboration" are inadequate to describe the reality of people's behavior under the extreme circumstances of war and occupation. About the Author: John F. Sweets is Professor of History at the University of Kansas at Lawrence and the author of The Politics of Resistance in France. An important revisionist study of the German occupation of France BLOverturns stereotypes about "collaboration" and "resistance" BL"His research is exemplary...clearly and forcefully written."-Robert O. Paxton
The role of early lithification in development of chalky porosity in calcitic micrites: Upper Cretaceous chalks, Egypt
Abstract Petrological and geochemical examination of Upper Cretaceous chalks from the Abu Roash area and Bahariya Oasis (Egypt) provide insights into factors which control porosity development in fine-grained calcitic carbonates. Petrological studies indicate that primary skeletal fabrics of coccoliths and foraminifera in micrites of Abu Roash are well preserved. In contrast, primary skeletal fabrics of the Bahariya Oasis chalks are pervasively altered. Geochemical analysis of these chalks reveals a striking contrast in composition. The high porosity chalks at Bahariya Oasis have depleted isotopic values ( δ 13 C = −5.0‰, δ 18 O = −8.9‰ PDB ) and low concentrations of trace elements (Sr and Na). In contrast, the low porosity chalks at Abu Roash are less depleted in terms of their isotopic values ( δ 13 C = 1.0‰, δ 18 O = −4.0‰ ) and possess elevated concentrations of Sr, Na, Fe and Zn. Importantly, fracture and collapse veins, present only at Abu Roash, are filled with calcite whose δ18O value is coincident with that of altered micrites at Bahariya Oasis. The lithic fragments cemented by this calcite, however, retain compositions identical to other lithified limestones at Abu Roash. Differences in fabric and chemistry of the pelagic marine micrites observed between Abu Roash and Bahariya Oasis reflect the degree of early lithification and compaction prior to exposure and meteoric diagenetic alteration associated with regional Late Cretaceous/pre-Eocene subaerial unconformity.