Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940–44 - Softcover

Glass, Charles

3.79

1,512 ratings by Goodreads

9780007228522: Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940–44

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000722852X ISBN 13: 9780007228522

Publisher: HarperPress, 2010

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An elegantly written and highly informative account of a group of Americans living in Paris when the city fell to the Nazis in June 1940.

In the early hours of 14 June 1940, Nazi troops paraded through the streets of Paris, marking the beginning of the city’s four-year occupation. French troops withdrew in order to avoid a battle and the potential destruction of their capital. It wasn't long before German tanks rumbled past the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde.

The American community in Paris was the largest in Continental Europe, totalling approximately 30,000 before the Second World War. Although Ambassodor Bullitt advised those without vital business in the city to leave in 1939, over half of the Americans in Paris chose to stay. Many had professional and family ties to the city; the majority, though, had a peculiarly American love for the city, rooted in the bravery of the Marquis de la Fayette and the 17,000 Frenchmen who volunteered to fight for American independence in 1776.

An eclectic group, they included black soldiers from the Harlem Hellfighters, who were determined not to return to the racial segregation that they faced at home, rich socialites like Peggy Guggenheim and Florence Jay Gould, as well as painters, musicians, bankers and businessmen. There were those whose lives went on as if the Germans were ephemera, those who collaborated and those, like Dr Sumner Jackson and Etta Shiber, who worked underground for the resistance movement.

This is a book about adventure, intrigue, passion and deceit, and one which follows its characters into the Maquis, the concentration camps and overseas. Filled with a huge amount of new analysis on the Second World War, ‘Americans in Paris’ is a fascinating, revealing and moving read.

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About the Author:

Charles Glass is the author of Tribes with Flags, Money for Old Rope, and The Northern Front. A world-famous journalist, he was chief Middle East correspondent for ABC News from 1983 to 1993 and has covered wars in Lebanon, Eritrea, Rhodesia, Somalia, Iraq, Egypt, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. His writing appears in Harper's Magazine, The Independent, and the Spectator.

Review:

''A vivid gallery of expatriates animates this chronicle of Paris during the Second World War. Drawing heavily on primary source material, Glass narrates the Nazi Occupation year by year, unfolding stories of resilience and despair. . . By focussing with exhaustive thoroughness on a relatively small group, Glass is able to capture the complex stories of 'as diverse a collection of opposed beliefs and backgrounds as in any American metropolis.' '' --New Yorker

''Once upon a time, historians told stories about the brave and the cowardly, about heroes, villains, and the many whose lives lay somewhere in between. That's what Glass. . . has done in this extraordinary narrative . . . This is outstanding popular history, well researched and told and never oversimplified. It's difficult to conceive of anyone who wouldn't enjoy this exceptional book. --Library Journal

''A fascinating treat.'' --Telegraph (London)

''Charles Glass handles this rich and complex material well. . . He never loses the reader's attention.'' --Spectator

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