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Book Title:
Pétain
Author:
Charles Williams
ISBN:
0-316-86127-8
Category:
Biography
Format:
Hardback
Summary:
A heavy-weight tome at 568pp, 'Pétain' provides a cradle-to-grave commentary of a man who's military career was all but over as a Colonel at the turn of the 20th C, became the hero of France for his actions at Verdun in 1916 and was finally painted as a collaborator and scapegoat for the Vichy French regime following the Fall of France in 1940, before dying in obscurity and ignominy in 1951 at the age of 96.

While I originally bought the book for Pétain's involvement as a military commander in the Great War, it turned out to be a fascinating narrative on the mindset of French politicians, the workings and processes of the Vichy state apparatus which proved the most interesting reading. Certainly not a man I could like, I did end up feeling some sympathy for Pétain as a soldier (albeit an ambitous and self-promoting one) far out of his depth as a politician, why I suspect did truly believe that what he was doing in his relationship with Hitler's Germany was actually the best available course of action for France. But history is a harsh judge, particularly if you are on the losing side when it comes to be written.

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