An account of France in the Occupation, Marianne in Chains focuses on the area around Tours in the Loire and in so doing, Robert Gildea provides us with a microcosmic view of everyday life during the Occupation. Traditionally, this story is told in one of two ways: first, the French are seen as doughty resistance fighters constantly subverting German rule; second, the French are dismissed as spineless traitors who gave in immediately and whose only interests were selfish ones. Gildea is searching for the middle path between these two views. His book shows that the vast majority of the French people reached an accommodation with their German masters and looks in detail at how this was done.