The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners Undesirables and Strangers

About this book

This book examines the effects of material distress on attitudes toward the Vichy government and on the treatment of outsiders in France during the Second World War. Fogg contends that the periods severe material shortages and refugee situation fundamentally reshaped Frances social structure. Material conditions also created alliances and divisions within the French population that undermined the Vichy regimes legitimacy. The book argues that shortages helped define the relationship between citizens and the state created the very definition of who was an insider and an outsider in local communities and shaped the manner in which native and refugee populations interacted. Foggs research reveals that French residents proved to be more pragmatic than ideological in their daily dealings with outsiders with several surprising effects: natives welcomed quintessential outsiders who provided an economic advantage to local communities while French insiders faced discrimination.