Vichy’s Double Bind: French collaboration between Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War, by Karine Varley (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2023; viii + 216pp. £85.00).

Tumblety, Joan (2025) Vichy’s Double Bind: French collaboration between Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War, by Karine Varley (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2023; viii + 216pp. £85.00). English Historical Review, 140 (602). (doi:10.1093/ehr/ceaf021).

Record type: Review

Abstract

The central argument in this detailed book about Franco-Italian relations during the Second World War is that the presence of both German and Italian authorities on French soil caught the quasi-autonomous Vichy regime in a ‘double bind’. The term implicitly explains the failure of Vichy’s strategy of playing one occupying power off against the other in order to protect French control over its population and territory. In recognizing that the divergent objectives of the German and Italian authorities presented opportunities that could be exploited, Vichy personnel nonetheless either misjudged the preferences of Berlin and Rome, lacked the diplomatic skill to force an issue, or found that its response to the actions of one foreign power limited its room for manoeuvre regarding the other.

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