Season of Infamy: A Diary of War and Occupation 1939–1945

Abstract

The English translation of the work Une saison gâtée: Journal de la guerre et de l’occupation—originally established and annotated in 1983 by the historian Jean-Noël Jeanneney, who at that time advocated wider use of ego-documents—is more than just a translation, as it also includes passages from the manuscript that were not published in the original French version. As such, the translation does not merely serve to make this book available to a wider audience (a goal that by itself would offer sufficient reason for the present publication); rather, it is an entirely new narrative that we can find in it. Season of Infamy: A Diary of War and Occupation 1939–1945 is translated by Michele McKay Aynesworth with a preface by leading historian Robert O. Paxton. Other positive aspects of the work include the subdivision of the narrative into chapters corresponding to the stages in Charles Rist’s life from September 1939 to December 1945, as well as annotations and summaries that make it easier for readers to orient themselves.