The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and Strangers

In this book, Fogg examines the effects of material distress on attitudes toward the Vichy government and on the treatment of outsiders in France during the Second World War. She contends that the period’s severe material shortages and refugee situation fundamentally reshaped France’s social structure. Material conditions also created alliances and divisions within the French population that undermined the Vichy regime’s legitimacy. Fogg argues that shortages helped define the relationship between citizens and the state, created the very definition of who was an ‘insider’ and an ‘outsider’ in local communities, and shaped the manner in which native and refugee populations interacted. Fogg’s research reveals that French residents proved to be more pragmatic than ideological in their daily dealings with outsiders, with some surprising effects: Natives welcomed ‘quintessential’ outsiders who provided an economic advantage to local communities, while French ‘insiders’ faced discrimination.