Historian Robert O. Paxton, whose seminal book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order challenged the myth of French resistance under Nazi occupation, will lecture at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 18, in the Gamble Room, 361 Rush Rhees Library, on the University of Rochester's River Campus.
Paxton is Mellon Professor of Social Science, Emeritus, at Columbia University, where he has been a member of the history department since 1969. His talk, titled "Vichy France Sixty Years After," is free and open to the public.
Discrediting the accepted picture of the Vichy government as a protector of its citizens, Vichy France provoked controversy when it was first published in 1972. Paxton used German and American diplomatic records and some French materials published during World War II that showed the Vichy regime collaborated with Germany to carve out a French role in Hitler's "New European Order."
The book spurred a reexamination of the German occupation in France and is today considered the benchmark for historical research on France between 1940 and 1944. The French government later presented Paxton with two honorary distinctions: the National Order of Merit and the Order of Arts and Letters.
Paxton served as director of the Institute on Western Europe for five years during his tenure at Columbia University. Previously, he taught in Italy, Australia, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the University of California at Berkeley. A Rhodes Scholar, Paxton received his doctorate from Harvard University. Among his many books are Parades and Politics at Vichy, Europe in the 20th Century, and Vichy France and the Jews.
Paxton's talk is part of the Verne Moore Lecture Series sponsored by the Department of History. For more information, contact (585) 275-2052.