Robert Paxton (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Robert Paxton (born 1932) is an American historian specializing in Vichy France and Europe during the World War II era. Paxton is best known for his 1972 book Vichy France, Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, in which he argued that Vichy collaboration with Germany was a voluntary program entered into by the Vichy government, not forced upon it by German pressure. It is considered one of the path-breaking works on France in the Vichy era. Its thesis has earned respect among both American and French historians. Paxton was called to testify at the trial of Maurice Papon (1910-2007), who was convicted for crimes against humanity in 1998. Paxton was born in Lexington, Virginia and educated at Washington and Lee University before earning his M.A. at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University.