Editions

French and Germans, Germans and French

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241351314

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 16mm x 130mm

  • Weight: 203g

  • RRP: £10.99

French and Germans, Germans and French

An extraordinary history of French lives under occupation in the First and Second World Wars, this is an intimate, unforgettable meditation on the strange mixture of compromise and betrayal, collaboration and resistance that marks defeat, written by one of the greatest historians of France.

'A splendid book for comprehending human kind ... Cobb has a strong sense of how ordinary life has to go on, even through disasters, and a sensitivity for what it was like at the time, matched by a gift for the telling phrase' Economist

'Prophet of the past, Richard Cobb is a visionary' New York Review of Books

'His France - urban, northern, provincial, pedestrian, noisy, unpuritanical, festive - was in contrast to, and predicated upon, another France: bureaucratic, official, suburban, safe' Julian Barnes

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241351314

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 16mm x 130mm

  • Weight: 203g

  • RRP: £10.99

Reviews

  • Richard Cobb is a visionary. His books will take you on an extraordinary intellectual and emotional journey.

    The New York Review of Books

  • His France - urban, northern, provincial, pedestrian, noisy, unpuritanical, festive - was in contrast to, and predicated upon, another France: bureaucratic, official, suburban, safe, rule - crazy, scared.

    Julian Barnes

  • Cobb was a true historian of life 'from below', using archival evidence to bring alive the reality - and the suffering - of ordinary people's existence.

    Geoffrey Wheatcroft, New Statesman

More in this Series

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Richard Cobb

Richard Cobb CBE was a British historian and essayist, and professor at the University of Oxford. He was the author of numerous influential works about the history of France, particularly the French Revolution.

Richard Cobb

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.