War Tourism

Second World War France from Defeat and Occupation to the Creation of Heritage

By: Bertram M. Gordon

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Hardcover | 1 October 2018

At a Glance

Hardcover
294 Pages

Age
18+

Dimensions(cm)
16.2 x 24.1 x 3.1

Hardcover

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As German troops entered Paris following their victory in June 1940, the American journalist William L. Shirer observed that they carried cameras and behaved as "naive tourists." One of the first things Hitler did after his victory was to tour occupied Paris, where he was famously photographed in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Focusing on tourism by German personnel, military and civil, and French civilians during the war, as well as war-related memory tourism since, War Tourism addresses the fundamental linkages between the two. As Bertram M. Gordon shows, Germans toured occupied France by the thousands in groups organized by their army and guided by suggestions in magazines such as Der Deutsche Wegleiter fr Paris [The German Guide for Paris]. Despite the hardships imposed by war and occupation, many French civilians continued to take holidays. Facilitated by the Popular Front legislation of 1936, this solidified the practice of workers' vacations, leading to a postwar surge in tourism.

After the end of the war, the phenomenon of memory tourism transformed sites such as the Maginot Line fortresses. The influx of tourists with links either directly or indirectly to the war took hold and continues to play a significant economic role in Normandy and elsewhere. As France moved from wartime to a postwar era of reconciliation and European Union, memory tourism has held strong and exerts significant influence across the country.

Industry Reviews

War Tourism will be an engaging read for scholars and students of war, travel and twentieth-century France... This book is a compelling reminder of the persistence of ordinary life during even the direst of wartime conditions

* French Politics, Culture & Society *

By integrating tourist behaviors, gazes, and imaginaries into the study of wartime France and its legacy, War Tourism makes a significant contribution to scholarship in several areas, most notably by demonstrating how fruitfully these areas can be combined.

* H-France Review *

Gordon does not simply write an internal history of the tourist imaginary, but argues that it played an important role in the political and economic history of twentieth-century France. War Tourism is well worth the visit.

* H-Diplo *

This fascinating book will undoubtedly inspire future historians to look more closely at the intersections between tourism and war in countries beyond France and beyond the Second World War.

* H-Soz-Kult *

A pioneering scholar of collaborationism in wartime France, Bertram M. Gordon has produced a book that will appeal not only to scholars of modern France, but to a wider audience seeking to understand the emergence and multiple meanings of 'war tourism' in a country that has a vast and enduring attraction for international visitors.

* H-War *

War Tourism is a must read for scholars of twentieth- and twenty-first century France.

* Journal of Military History *

Drawing from archives, historical guidebooks, publicity posters, and site-visit statistics, Gordon has written an impressive analysis of war tourism in France during the Second World War and its aftermath. To the present day, tourism is essential to the integration of wartime events into France's cultural heritage.

* The French Review *

Bertram Gordon's War Tourism joins an intriguing and still-emerging current of scholarly work investigating the 'entanglements of war and tourism'... [i]ts originality and value resides in its revelation of how much the annees noires and their memory have been filtered through the tourist frames of meaning.

* European History Quarterly *

War Tourism is a stimulating survey of a neglected and important topic.

* Journal of Modern History *

A pioneering figure in tourism history, Bertram Gordon explores in this book connections between World War II and tourism in France. In all, War Tourism provides a lively and erudite study written by an expert in French and German history who draws effectively from both tourism and memory studies. [The book] offers an insightful collage showing diverse intersections of war, tourism, and memory.

* Journal of Contemporary History *

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