The Resistance The French Fight Against the Nazis

'When talk, or a film, or a play turns to how we might have reacted during an occupation of our own country, the stark options are collaboration or resistance - as the French quickly learnt in 1940. After the German victory, a complex, fractured story emerges, often based on myth and sentiment, about which we know (and care) too little in the UK, and which even the French have begun to forget. In a relatively short book Cobb can't tell the full story; instead he sensibly gives an overview of the politics of the Occupation and identifies dramatic acts of resistance taken from eyewitness accounts in recently released archives' The Times 30/5 Cobb's book is a fine piece of work, illustrated with excellent photographs, a number of them un-familiar... the author has fulfilled with notable success his own purpose, of paying tribute to men and women who did extraordinary things in the face of one of the most hideous tyrannies in history. The Sunday Times 07/06 'Matthew Cobb has filled a void by writing the first academic history of the Resistance in English. His task was a daunting one. The occupation of France by the Nazi army, the installation of the puppet Vichy administration, the actions of the various branches of Resistance activity, often operating independently of each other, the role of the Free French under the control of Charles de Gaulle in dictating policy to those still opposing the Nazis on French soil -- all these elements feed into the confusion and mythology surrounding the Resistance. Cobb manages to meld these disparate elements into a coherent and readable account -- no mean feat...Cobb's book makes the excitement and danger of the period palpable, and allows a greater understanding of what it must have been like to be involved in such a dramatic conflict' The Irish Times 09/06 'Cobb is a realist. He makes few claims for the military record of the Resistance. His chronicle of jealousies, rows and betrayals speaks for itself. Yet he comes perhaps closer than any other historian to explaining why the Resistance matters in spite of all this' Spectator 20/6 'This is fabulous book, painstakingly researched, even-handed and dripping with poignancy... A good book about the French Resistance has long been overdue. It has now arrived' Glasgow Herald 13/6 'Lively and interesting' Literary Review July issue 'A sweeping narrative of all parts of the Resistance...with flair and panache Cobb treats us to dramatic descriptions of the dangerous activity of Resistance fighters...his account is so full of clandestine adventuring that the story emerges, when taken as a whole, as an epic. With its heroism latent even in the internal struggles of the Resistance, this is a tale that could rekindle that enthusiasm for the past that brings the values of our own time into perspective' TLS 13/11 'Informative, often moving history of the Resistance' FT 21/8