Bout of Books 31 - Day 2 update

I've been reading every day for work, so I'm getting a fair amount of reading done. I finished reading Robert Paxton's classic work, Vichy France: Old Guard New Order this afternoon. I've been working with a pomodoro timer this week to reduce my social media time-wasting and "self-interruption."  in general. I think it's helping.   After finishing the Vichy book, I started another Paxton book. This one is an edited collection co-edited with Nicholas Wahl, called De Gaulle and the United States: A Centennial Reappraisal. I'm about 80 pages in, and I'm learning a lot. This book is quite interesting in its structure, because it follows a French conference model that combines presentations from professional historians with presentations by people who participated in the events, and gives both historians and participants opportunities to correct each other's recollections or work. The content of both books is also very good. Paxton was already one of my favorite historians, based on his short book The Anatomy of Fascism, but his book on the Vichy government is probably what made his reputation as a scholar. Paxton was the first historian to use German records to analyze Vichy - so his book, first published in 1972 completely overturned a lot of the more apolegtic legends about the collaborationist government that had been published up to that point.  

   Before reading these two books,. I didn't know that much about either the Vichy government or the U.S. relationship with De Gaulle and the Free French, but let's just say it wasn't really like what you see in Casablanca, though the American public was more favorable to De Gaulle than most of the U.S. government, or even a lot of the French population of the U.S., which like the French population, generally supported Petain, at least in the beginning.  The U.S. also maintained positive relations with the Vichy government even after entering the war in 1941. People in the State department saw De Gaulle as a "dictator in the making" and/or a "creature of the British." At one point, U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull referred to US citizens' support for De Gaulle as "softheaded idealism." I'm learning now how the tide finally turned to get the U.S to support De Gaulle, and it seems related to the growing understanding that the French Resistance backed him.  

    I'm also listening to the audiobook of Anne and John Tusa's book on the Nuremberg Trials, which is beautifully read by Ralph Cosham. I've never listened to a book that was part of an academic project before - but this one is already meant for popular audiences. I found a used hard copy that I can use to review details, and meanwhile, I can feel like I'm working on my project when I'm exercising and doing chores.

    My other book this week is my slow morning reading of Kim Stanely Robinson's Ministry for the Future which is our local SF bookclub pick for this month. I'm a little more than halfway through it and am finding it to be the best Science Fiction book I've read in a long time. It's a near-future book about various efforts to address already catastrophic impacts of climate change. 

 So for today, I'd say I read about 210 pages, and I'll probably read another 40 or so before the day is over. And since this blog is for reading and listening, here's a song to go with today's reading: