A startling and original view of the occupation of the French heartland, based on a new investigation of everyday life under Nazi rule In France, the German occupation is called simply the "dark years." There were only the "good French" who resisted and the "bad French" who collaborated. Marianne in Chains , a broad and provocative history, uncovers a rather different story, one in which the truth is more complex and humane. Drawing on previously unseen archives, firsthand interviews, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, Robert Gildea reveals everyday life in the heart of occupied France. He describes the pressing imperatives of work, food, transportation, and family obligations that led to unavoidable compromise and negotiation with the army of occupation. In the process, he sheds light on such subjects as forced labor, the role of the Catholic Church, the "horizontal collaboration" between French women and German soldiers, and, most surprisingly, the ambivalent attitude of ordinary people toward the Resistance. A great work of reconstruction, Marianne in Chains provides a clear view, unobscured by romance or polemics, of the painful ambiguities of living under tyranny. “Gildea has done a great service...A considerable achievement.” ― The New York Times “[A] carefully researched and richly nuanced study.” ― The Boston Globe “Subtle and humane.” ― The New Yorker “A searching inquiry...Provocative--and timely.” ― Kirkus Reviews (starred) “Stunning...In his nuanced and intricate work of historical reconstruction Gildea has grappled heroically with the ambiguity at the heart of history and in the heart of man.” ― The Atlantic Monthly Robert Gildea is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Past in French History (New Haven and London, Yale University Press), Marianne in chains. In Search of the German Occupation, 1940--1944 (London, Macmillan, 2002) and Children of the Revolution. The French, 1799--1914 (London, Allen Lane, 2008). He is currently directing an international research project on militants in Europe in 1965--75 entitled 'Around 1968: Activism, Networks, Trajectories'.