Alternate History - "What if France had continued the war in 1940" series of books
A group of French History and WW2 buffs have spent the past few years imagining what would have happened had the French government of 1940 decided to pursue the war against Germany and Italy from France's North African possessions. Gathering heaps of information about practically every aspect of France in 1940, they have published two books that I strongly recommend to those who like "what if" scenarios.
So far the books are only available in French - and as such represent one of the very few attempts by French historians to venture into alternate history territory . Given the quality of the books, one can hope they'll foster enough interest to warrant a translation some day. In the meanwhile, I'm certain the series will catch the attention of French-speaking members of every nationality.
Here are the covers of the two tomes that have been published so far.
Well having Sapir and Mahé is enough of an argument for me.
I just had a look at Interrogations´s issue on the subject. And there is this little thingie that makes me cringe.
En l’occurrence, le présent essai d’uchronie redouble l’intérêt pour une question qui ramène à son point de départ : pourquoi le possible exploré dans cet essai ne s’est-il pas réalisé ? Autrement dit, des deux partis au gouvernement pourquoi est-ce celui du choix de la défaite et non pas celui du choix de la poursuite du combat qui l’a emporté ? L’ouvrage conduit à poser la question mais celle-ci déborde son champ même. Il faut cependant regretter qu’une réponse possible à cette question soit d’emblée écartée par ses auteurs, à en juger par ce passage de l’introduction : « Sans reprendre la thèse d’un "complot", qui ne semble pas vérifiée faute de comploteurs organisés, il est clair que, pour une grande part, les élites françaises sont entrées en guerre à reculons et n’ont eu de plus grande hâte que d’en sortir. » (page 35). L’appréciation sur l’inexistence d’un complot organisé est, en fait, des plus discutables et demande à être révisée au regard de la thèse contraire, très solidement argumentée par un immense travail d’exploitations d’archives, développée par Annie Lacroix-Riz(3).
FFS I am as lefty as they come, but can´t people, just for the sake of knowledge, stop going beyond the factual?
Ah, it's the old Vichy debate: was it a conspiracy (in which case the 1940 armistice is just the means to a goal, establishing the Vichy state), or did they just jump on the opportunity offered by the defeat?
Since you share my interest on that, I'll strongly recommend "L'Hôtel du Parc", a mockumentary presenting "interviews" of Vichy officials, using their own words (from speeches, memoirs, etc). It does give an interesting perspective.
Indeed. I don't consider myself too ignorant in contemporary French history and yet I didn't know 20% of the stuff presented there. From people's bios to raw economic data, weapon production, weapons specs, it's a motherlode of information.
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Alternate History - "What if France had continued the war in 1940" series of books
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