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France emphasises active military resistance by regular people
Ironically there's a lot of truth in that in modern times. Their strikes and demos have real power. Farmers, truckers and other groups are good at holding the country to ransom. Demos easily become riots with many cars torched. People power is an ever present force.
nick_h.
Much like how Britain overplays the Blitz and our impact on the war to soothe the loss of empire. France emphasises active military resistance by regular people - as though there was a widespread organised guerilla organisation. De Gaulle wrapped it into a conservative patriotic wartime story (in which he tries to write himself in).
There really wasn't. For a start there was a much bigger representation in the resistance of persecuted and marginalised groups like the Spanish* immigrants, Jews, and communists - because unsurprisingly they had established networks in a way that your average Frenchman didn't.
There was never really "the resistance" in a uniformed cohesive sense. It was a fractured movement and much manifested culturally like say journals or books the Science of the Sea.
None of that to say that their were no resistance fighting the occupation. But it's much easier to group it into an idea postwar.
I wonder if I still have any books on it. If I find them I'll @ you the titles.
*on that note people don't realise how many Spainish immigrants there were in France and how they were treated.