The book, described by the judges as "asking profound, historical questions about how to act in impossible circumstances", uses the 1945 trial of Marshal Pétain to explore collusion and its consequences in post-war France.
Pétain, the aged hero of Verdun, was tried for treason by his countrymen for signing the armistice with Nazi Germany and for leading the collaborationist Vichy regime. The guilty verdict may have been a foregone conclusion, but the case was never about one man alone: every level of French officialdom, particularly the deeply compromised justice system, had terrible questions to ask and to answer.
Jackson, in paying as much attention to the stances of witnesses, jury, lawyers and judges as to those of the accused, shows what happens when a battered nation, freed from its enemies, is forced to confront its own shame.
Julian Jackson, Emeritus Professor of History at Queen Mary University, London, is the foremost British historian of modern France. His 2018 biography of de Gaulle, A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle (2018) won an array of important awards in France, the United States and the United Kingdom – including the 2019 Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize.
His other books include France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944, which was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times History Book Award, and The Fall of France, which won the Wolfson History Prize in 2004. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Artemis Cooper, chair of the panel of judges, said:
"Julian Jackson is one of those rare beasts, a rigorous historian with the skills of a seasoned novelist. As you read, you are inside that hot, febrile courtroom where Marshal Pétain is being tried: grappling with moral dilemmas, and the testimony of Vichy administrators desperate to exonerate themselves. As for the old man on trial, is he a hero, a traitor, or both? Who needs a thriller when real events make such compelling reading?"
Julian Jackson and Artemis Cooper will be in conversation at the Oxford Literary Festival at 12 noon on 20th March 2024.
The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize celebrates the best in non-fiction. Its judges look for books with compelling narrative, imaginative insight, scholarship and good writing. The first award was made in 1956, and it has been given annually ever since. The winner receives £5,000, a magnum of Pol Roger champagne and a copy of Old Men Forget, Duff Cooper's autobiography.
The prize is generously supported by Pol Roger.
It is run by the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund, a charity based at New College, Oxford. The judges are Artemis Cooper; Miles Young, warden of New College, Oxford; Susan Brigden, David Horspool and Minoo Dinshaw.
