This book, first published in 1987, examines the elements that constitute the French identity through the experience of the Second World War – a constant point of reference, a landmark to which the collective consciousness returns again and again. The Occupation period and the national humiliation of the French military and political collapse has been perceived as more than a series of traumatic events, and in fact as a reality of mythical proportions that became a symbol of something grander, French identity itself.