Henry Rousso is a researcher at the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Paris. Stanley Hoffmann (1928–2015) was Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University.

Rousso has set out to provide not just another narrative of les années noires—the years of defeat, occupation, of the phantom ‘French State’ and the civil war—but a study of the way the Vichy episode has been perceived and perverted by the French ever since. The result is a brilliant and intemperate book that is also a tract for the times.

• Foreword by Stanley Hoffmann Abbreviations Introduction: The Neurosis Part 1: EVOLUTION OF THE SYNDROME 1. Unfinished Mourning (1944-1954) 2. Repressions (1954-1971) 3. The Broken Mirror (1971-1974) 4. Obsession (after 1974): Jewish Memory 5. Obsession (after 1974): The World of Politics Part 2: TRANSMISSION OF THE SYNDROME 6. Vectors of Memory 7. Diffuse Memory Conclusion Appendix 1: Chronology of Events Appendix 2: French Films and World War II Bibliography Notes Acknowledgments Index