From Publishers Weekly

Early postwar France saw the trials of collaborationist leaders, de Gaulle's reestablishment of the republic and his abrupt resignation in 1946, widespread panic at the prospect of a Communist or right-wing coup and the arrival of Marshall Plan aid, which rescued the country from economic collapse. This engaging chronicle set in Paris--a magnet for Picasso, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Wright, Orwell, Hemingway, Breton, Koestler, Philby--captures the desperation and exhilaration of those years through a blend of history, eyewitness accounts, interviews, telling incident and gossip. Beevor ( The Spanish Civil War ) and Cooper ( Cairo in the War: 1939-1945 ) illuminate the blind Stalinism of France's "progressive" intelligentsia, protracted enmity between resisters and collaborators, early years of the Cold War and France's love-hate relationship with the U.S.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Husband-and-wife team of Beevor and Cooper have produced a thorough, fascinating account of postwar Paris. The authors focus on three themes: the bitter struggle of Resistance supporters against the collaborators of the Vichy government; the city's emergence as the intellectual and cultural mecca of the world; and the development of a love-hate relationship between France and the country that did the most to liberate it-the United States. Beevor and Cooper benefited from access to private manuscripts, including the papers of Duff Cooper, the British ambassador to France immediately after the war and grandfather of Artemis. The book is filled with sound, balanced insights and witty observations. It should prove enjoyable and valuable both for specialists and general readers. Readers will also value it because it was one of the last projects on which Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis worked as an editor at Doubleday.
T.J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.