Output details

Philippe Henriot, The Last Act of Vichy: Radio Broadcasts, January – June 1944, Liverpool Online Series, 17 (Liverpool, 2011)

This edition is available (free of charge to users) at the following URL:

http://www.liv.ac.uk/cultures-languages-and-area-studies/research/liverpool-online-series/

The edition was published in PDF on 25 November 2011. For technical reasons, the original Word document was re-saved in PDF on 26 March 2013, and the new PDF uploaded on that date (hence this is the date showing in the document properties). Minor formatting modifications were made prior to the new upload, but no changes were made to the actual content of the document. The PDF dated 25 November 2011 is available for audit upon request.

The output is the first-ever scholarly edition of the texts of all 273 surviving radio broadcasts made in 1944 by Philippe Henriot, Vichy’s Secretary of Information and Propaganda from January to June 1944. The sources include both original textual and audio sources, many of which had previously been neither published (in the case of the textual sources) nor transcribed (in the case of the audio sources). The text of the broadcasts is accompanied by a 45,000-word introduction, which (a) provides appropriate textual information on the sources; (b) examines the creation, scheduling, transmission, publication and dissemination of the broadcasts; (c) sets the broadcasts in their detailed historical context; and (d) offers pathways for an analysis of their content. The edition is further supported by an extensive yet easy-to-use critical apparatus. This includes a chronological list of the broadcasts, giving the source(s) for each. There are also four hyperlinked glossaries and a hyperlinked list of abbreviations. The glossaries offer explanations of key terms in the introduction and broadcasts: (a) names; (b) publications; (c) groups, bodies and associations; and (d) historical and wartime references. Users simply click on a term in a broadcast or in the introduction to be taken to the appropriate explanation in the relevant glossary, from where, using Alt ←, they can return to the relevant broadcast. The glossaries contribute substantially to the provision of a simple and accessible reading experience for users, since they eliminate the use of extensive notes which would have significantly disrupted the appearance and flow of the text for users. The edition is completed by an extensive bibliography.

This project was complex, challenging and time-intensive. It involved the collection and analysis of a large, fragmented body of textual and audio primary sources. Many had previously been neither published nor transcribed, were in fragile condition, and difficult to locate and access. Substantial additional research in multiple archives was required to complete the 45,000-word introduction (which analyses the broadcasts in their historical context) and to establish the edition’s extensive critical apparatus. The resulting output is a unique primary resource of exceptional scope and scale. It makes available a significant body of materials and provides crucial new insight into Vichy.