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Author Jorgensen-Earp, Cheryl R., 1952-

Title Discourse and defiance under Nazi occupation : Guernsey, Channel Islands, 1940-1945 / Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp
Published East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [2013]
©2013

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Description 1 online resource (319 pages) : map
Contents The Panoptical Occupation -- The Bedrock of Resistance -- Reaching for Control -- Understanding the Story -- A Subtle Resistance
Summary Captured by German forces shortly after Dunkirk, and not relinquished until May of 1945, nearly a year after the Normandy invasion, the British Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Herm) were characterized during their occupation by severe deprivation and powerlessness. The Islanders, with few resources to stage an armed resistance, constructed a rhetorical resistance based upon the manipulation of discourse, construction of new symbols, and defiance of German restrictions on information. Though much of modern history has focused on the possibility that Islanders may have collaborated with the Germans, this eye-opening history turns to secret war diaries kept in Guernsey. A close reading of these private accounts, written at great risk to the diarists, allows those who actually experienced the Occupation to reclaim their voice and reveals new understandings of Island resistance. What emerges is a stirring account of the unquenchable spirit and deft improvisation of otherwise ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Under the most dangerous of conditions, Guernsey civilians used imaginative methods in reacting to their position as a subjugated population, devising a covert resistance of nuance and sustainability. Violence, this book and the people of Guernsey demonstrate, is not at all the only means with which to confront evil
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject World War, 1939-1945 -- Guernsey
Government, Resistance to -- Guernsey -- History -- 20th century
HISTORY -- General.
Government, Resistance to
Politics and government
Social conditions
SUBJECT Channel Islands -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2004007889
Guernsey -- History -- 20th century
Guernsey -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Guernsey -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Subject Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies -- Channel Islands
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies -- Guernsey
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012044850
ISBN 9781609173692
1609173694
9781628960082
1628960086
9781628950083
1628950080