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by: Julian Jackson
List Price: $17.95Amazon.com's Price: $12.21 You Save: $5.74 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5344
EAN: 9780192805508
ISBN: 0192805509
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 296
Publication Date: May 27, 2004
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 143413
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Fall of France in 1940 is one of the pivotal moments of the twentieth century. If the German invasion of France had failed, it is arguable that the war might have ended right there. But the French suffered instead a dramatic and humiliating defeat, a loss that ultimately drew the whole world into war.
This exciting new book by Julian Jackson, a leading historian of twentieth-century France, charts the breathtakingly rapid events that led to the defeat and surrender of one of the greatest bastions of the Western Allies. Using eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and diaries to bring the story to life, Jackson not only recreates the intense atmosphere of the six weeks in May and June leading up to the establishment of the Vichy regime, but he also unravels the historical evidence to produce a fresh answer to the perennial question--was the fall of France inevitable. Jackson's vivid narrative explores the errors of France's military leaders, her inability to create stronger alliances, the political infighting, the lack of morale, even the decadence of the inter-war years. He debunks the 'vast superiority' of the German army, revealing that the more experienced French troops did well in battle against the Germans. Perhaps more than anything else, the cause of the defeat was the failure of the French to pinpoint where the main thrust of the German army would come, a failure that led them to put their best soldiers up against a feint, while their worst troops faced the heart of the German war machine.
An engaging and authoritative narrative, The Fall of France illuminates six weeks that changed the course of twentieth-century history.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Hitler's Luck
Professor Jackson's study of the various factors that contributed to the seemingly easy German victory leaves the reader with the distinct impression that none of this was inevitable and that France fell victim to a series of military, political and international missteps that left it's army and ultimately the entire country completely vulnerable.
Focusing on the military aspects, Jackson makes it clear that leading up to the war the French army was evenly matched and in some respects ... Read More
Rating: - True background to why France's forces melted away
It is an excellent background to why France fell so cheaply.
Details clearly the confusion after 1918, the pacifism, communism, rising prices, boredom, spineless politicians (Gamelin is a politician).
Rating: - Excellent but misses effects of Anti-Semitism
Most histories I have read treat the Fall of France with little examination--Hitler invaded through the Ardennes, the French didn't expect them there, the line broke, Dunkirk happened, Paris fell, there you have it.
This work is excellent in that it uses multiple perspectives to illustrate Why this happened. This includes a cogent analysis of the military situation and choices--tanks scattered about as infantry support and not in armored divisions, sending the reserves very ... Read More
Rating:  - EXCELLENT ANALYSIS
I won't attempt to repeat information outlined in the exceptional previous reviews. This book provides a good companion to Ernest R. May's STANGE VICTORY Hill & Wang 2000. Although of the two, I find this book more interesting in that the author covers all aspects of French society as well as the impact of the defeat and how it was handled. He points out both the French and the British anticipated a long war, but they expected to have two years to complete gearing up for it.
Part of the German ... Read More
Rating: - Best of its kind
Both scholarly and entertaining, this is one really really fun read.
The final chapter alone is worth the price of the book. As though in answer to the questions, "Why is the collapse of France in 1940 important, and why do we keep reading and writing about it?", Jackson weaves a fascinating tale of the aftereffects of June 1940. He argues convincingly that the fall of France began a chain-reaction that turned a rather circumscribed European conflict into a world war. (Briefly: France's collapse ... Read More
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