The Collapse of the Third Republic: A Study of France's Fall in 1940 (Obelisk)

William Shirer was not only a scholar of France’s defeat and collapse in World War II, but also an eyewitness. He watched as France, a military power on the European continent, proved utterly incapable of resisting Nazi Germany’s invasion and fell completely in just six weeks. How did it happen? After nearly a decade of studying the vast archives left behind and conducting hundreds of interviews with the leaders, generals, diplomats, and ordinary people of the French Third Republic, Shirer offers an answer in this book: France fell because of internal strife. These divisions and conflicts within the country dated back to the 1890s and did not ease even when war broke out. The book documents and analyzes the major events that took place in France and abroad before and after the outbreak of World War II, and provides a detailed account of the thoughts and actions of the people involved.