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When Faced with the Question

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Ego-histories of France and the Second World War

Part of the book series: The Holocaust and its Contexts ((HOLC))

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Abstract

This ego-history tracks Colin Nettelbeck’s evolution from a strict training in literary history to increasing engagement with the events and methodologies of contemporary French history, concerning especially the period of the Second World War. It reflects on chance discoveries, transformative moments of awareness and on the role of various mentors and influential texts. Socio-historical contexts are also shown to be important in his understanding of conflicts and their memories, notably the Algerian war and the upheavals in the United States in the 1960s. His approach to the history and historiography of the Vichy period has been particularly concerned with neglected parts of the story and with the contention that historical accounts are most satisfying when nourished by a diversity of source materials.

And then, you know how life is,

like a woven fabric in which all

the threads cross, and what I want

one day is to see the whole pattern.

Antonio Tabucchi, A Riddle

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Colin Nettelbeck

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  1. Colin Nettelbeck
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Correspondence to Colin Nettelbeck .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Manuel Bragança

  2. University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Fransiska Louwagie

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Nettelbeck, C. (2018). When Faced with the Question. In: Bragança, M., Louwagie, F. (eds) Ego-histories of France and the Second World War. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_14

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70859-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70860-7

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