This book explores the contours of civic identity in the town of Vichy, France. Over the course of its history, Vichy has been known for three things: its thermal spa resort; its products (especially Vichy water and Vichy cosmetics); and its role in hosting the État Français, France’s collaborationist government in the Second World War. This last association has become an obsession for the residents of Vichy, who feel stigmatized and victimized by the widespread habit of referring to France’s wartime government as the ‘Vichy regime’. This book argues that the stigma, victimhood, and decline suffered by Vichyssois are best understood by placing Vichy’s politics of identity in a broader historical context that considers corporate, as well as social and cultural, history.
Table of Content
1. Introduction.- 2. Stigma.- 3. Victimhood.- 4. Decline.- 5. Renewal and Defiance.- 6. Conclusion.
About the author
Kirrily Freeman is Professor of History at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada. Her publications include Bronzes to Bullets: Vichy and the Destruction of French Public Statuary (2009) and Reading the Postwar Future: Textual Turning Points from 1944 (2019), edited with John Munro.
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