Marché Noir

'With immense research and compelling prose, Mouré analyzes how people of all kinds-rich and poor, rural and urban, producers and consumers, police and the policed, from Vichy officials and Nazi occupiers to Allied liberators-navigated the challenges and opportunities of France's wartime black-market economy. A superb integration of economic, social, and cultural history.' Herrick Chapman, New York University 'Moure's compelling book on the black market focuses on a critical aspect of life in France during the German Occupation. Moure's vivid account brings his deep understanding of economics and of the war to his investigation of the black market and its profound impact on politics, economics and daily life. Vichy's failure to control and enforce a system meant to ensure basic living standards all but compelled producers, distributors and consumers to turn to the black market, widening divisions in French society.' Sarah Fishman, University of Houston 'Mouré weaves powerful examples from a variety of sources - from police records to diaries, economic reports, and contemporary cartoons - and successfully explains the intricacies of economic factors in lay terms. This work offers a welcome and necessary addition to recent scholarship on the 'gray zone' that characterized French collaboration with Nazi Germany. … Highly recommended.' G. P. de Syon, Choice