• Vichy France

  • The History of Nazi Germany's Occupation of France During World War II
  • By: Charles River Editors
  • Narrated by: William Crockett
  • Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Vichy France  By  cover art

Vichy France

By: Charles River Editors
Narrated by: William Crockett
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $6.95

Buy for $6.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Emerging from France's catastrophic 1940 defeat like a bedraggled and rather sinister phoenix, the French State – better known to history as Vichy France or the Vichy Regime after its spa-town capital, stands in history as a unique and bizarre creation of German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler's European conquests. A patchwork of paradoxes and contradictions, the Vichy Regime maintained a quasi-independent French nation for some time after the Third Reich invasion until the Germans decided to include it in their occupation zone.

Headed by a French war hero of World War I, Marshal Philippe Petain, and his later Prime Minister Pierre Laval, Vichy France displayed strong right-wing, conservative, and authoritarian tendencies. Nevertheless, it never lapsed fully into fascism until the Germans arrived to reduce its role to little more than a mask over their own dominion. Petain carried out several major initiatives in an effort to counteract the alleged decadence of modern life and to restore the strength and virtues of the French "race". Accordingly, he received willing support from more conservative elements of society, even some factions within the Catholic Church. Following Case Anton - the takeover of the unoccupied area by the Germans - native French fascist elements also emerged.

While the French later disowned the Vichy government with considerable vehemence, evidence such as fairly broad-based popular support prior to Case Anton suggests a somewhat different story. The Petain government expressed one facet of French culture and thought. Its conservative, imperialistic nature did not represent the widespread love of "liberty, fraternity, and equality" also deeply ingrained in French thinking, but neither did it constitute a complete divergence from a national history that produced such famous authoritarians as Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte.

©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2016 Charles River Editors
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Vichy France

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well Researched But Poorly Narrated

The short book reads like a Masters level dissertation. It is well researched & presents a very important piece of WWII history with a scholarly touch. If you're looking for a brief overview of the Vichy regime, this book is an excellent choice.

But be warned, Mr. Crockett's narration is awful. You will have to fight through his constant mispronunciation of vocabulary, both common & academic, his well intended over annunciation and amateur-hour voice affectations, indistinguishable from one character to the next, during all historical quotes.

Honestly, if I hadn't been so eager to dive into this subject, I would have requested a refund because the book is almost unlistenable due to performance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Short but informative

Short but informative. Horrible narration. The narrator hasn't a clue on how to pronounce French names, can't even pronounce the name of De Gaulle correctly (most people in the English speaking world can, but he can't). He thinks that the French roll their "r's," which they don't, but he pretends he can speak French.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

worst narration ever

while the book is a good brief overview of Vichy, it receives the worst narration of any Audible book I have heard. Is there an editor in the house? Will somebody please tell the narrator, Crockett, how to pronounce Philippe Petain (not Philleep-pay) and Vichy (not Vee-shay). Crockett mispronounces not only the majority of French and German names and places, but English words as well

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH VICHY GOVERNMENT

This Audible selection is a short history of Vichy France. A result of the Fall of France to the Nazi military. It is a good overview of Vichy's history, its main players and life in Vichy, France. I found the performance by William Crockett below par. The presentation was mechanical and sounded computer generated. Words were mispronounced and dialogue seemed speeded up via some type of processing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful