The French Resistance and its Forgotten Women
Loading...
Files
Description
For several decades after World War II, histories of the French Resistance--written almost exclusively by men--largely ignored the contributions of women. Even now, many historians underplay the extent and importance of women’s participation in the Resistance, treating the subject, in the words of one historian, as “an anonymous background element in an essentially male story.”
In fact, French women were, as one U.S. intelligence official put it, “the lifeblood of the Resistance," crucial to the liberation of France. They collected intelligence, transported arms, escorted Allied pilots caught behind enemy lines to safety, and even led armed bands of Resistance fighters against German targets.
Olson is introduced by PSU Professor of History Katy Barber.
Date
11-13-2024
Disciplines
European History | Women's History
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivates 4.0 License. This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42724
Recommended Citation
Olson, Lynne, "The French Resistance and its Forgotten Women" (2024). Friends of History Presentations. 8.
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42724
Comments
Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of ten books of history, most of which deal in some way with World War II. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called her “our era’s foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.”
Born in Hawaii, Olson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and the White House.
Photograph of Lynne Olson by Tamzin B. Smith.