The Town of Vichy and the Politics of Identity

The Town of Vichy and the Politics of Identity Stigma, Victimhood and Decline

Sale price  $49.49 Regular price $54.99
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The Town of Vichy and the Politics of Identity

The Town of Vichy and the Politics of Identity Stigma, Victimhood and Decline

Sale price  $49.49 Regular price $54.99

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The Town of Vichy and the Politics of Identity

Stigma, Victimhood and Decline

Kirrily Freeman

History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General

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.

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.


Publication Date: 01 February 2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN-13: 9783030931964
Format: Hardback
Page Count: 139

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