There's been little written about artists, musicians, writers and intellectuals who lived in Paris at the time of the Nazi Occupation. Given how many books have been written about regular residents of Paris, of Occupied and Unoccupied zones in the city, the lack of written material about the individuals who had been very much a part of the cultural identity of Paris, is glaringly sparse.

Hitler himself, recognized the importance of culture and encouraged an artistic life among those in Occupied France, but an artistic life dictated by his belief in German cultural supremacy, and one subject to censorship.

After the war, the artists and members of the social elite who were known to not only have lived, traded with, entertained or partied with the Occupiers, were denounced as collaborators and held more responsible for France's defeat than her military and political figures.

But how does one define collaboration?
"Was it accepting German hospitality to visit or perform in Germany, attending a reception hosted by a German official or even just seeking German approval to publish a book, perform a play or exhibit a painting?"

And how is resistance defined?
"-fleeing the country, refusing to publish, to exhibit or to perform? Or was it just the opposite - staying to fling French culture into the face of the Occupier?"

This is a detailed study of cultural icons such as Matisse, Picasso, Henri Jeansson, Serge Lifar, Jean Cocteau, Marc Chagall and Simone de Beauvoir, and what they did to survive during this period of history, as well as a study of the strategies adopted by the Nazis to encourage if not compel cooperation by the French. ( )

Writing Lacks Coherence

In this World War II subaltern history, Frederic Spotts attempts to bring to light, the lives of those who chose to stay in France during the occupation and collaboration under the Vichy regime. This is a social and cultural history of what life was like under Nazi collaboration.

The historical questions "The Shameful Peace" attempts to answer are: what was collaboration? Was it accepting German hospitality to visit or perform in Germany, attending a reception hosted by German official or even just seeking German approval to publish a book... What was resistance - fleeing the country, refusing to publish, to exhibit or to perform?" (p. 4).

Throughout the chapters, Spotts offers some anecdotal evidence here and there but overall I thought the writing lacked cohesion. There was a lot of name dropping and random stories but I felt that Spotts was not focused enough in his arguments, he was all over the place at times. Its too bad, because it was a good idea for a book and this is a history that really needs to be told, just needed to be written and argued better.

Because of the reasons stated, I cannot therefore recommend the book. If you're looking for a book that explores what life was like under Vichy controlled France, you'll have to keep looking. ( )