Robert Paxton
Historian who reshaped understanding of Vichy France.
Robert Owen Paxton, born June 15, 1932, in Lexington, Virginia, is an American political scientist and historian whose work centers on Vichy France, fascism, and World War II-era Europe. He holds the title of Mellon Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Columbia University’s History Department. His most famous contribution is the 1972 book *Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order*, which sparked fierce controversy in France and fundamentally changed how scholars understand the Vichy regime.
Paxton attended Phillips Exeter Academy for secondary school, then earned a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1954. As a Rhodes Scholar, he spent two years at Merton College, Oxford, studying under historians James Joll and John Roberts and receiving an M.A. He completed a Ph.D. at Harvard in 1963. Before joining Columbia’s faculty in 1969, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He retired in 1997 but remains a professor emeritus. Between 1978 and 2017, he wrote over twenty reviews for *The New York Review of Books*.
In *Vichy France*, Paxton challenged the prevailing view, championed by Robert Aron, that the Vichy government practiced passive resistance to German rule. Instead, he argued it was eager to collaborate with Nazi Germany. He also rejected the tendency of historians like Aron and Henri Michel to downplay Vichy’s domestic agenda, contending that its reforms aimed to transform French society and foreshadowed changes in the 1950s and 1960s. When the book appeared in French translation in 1973, it provoked intense hostility from French historians and commentators. In a 1976 televised debate, Vichy naval leader Gabriel Auphan called Paxton a liar. Nevertheless, the translation sold thousands of copies, especially among younger readers shaped by the May 1968 protests, who were uninterested in what were seen as cozy myths about Vichy.
Before Paxton’s work, French historiography was dominated by conservative or pro-Communist perspectives that paid little attention to grassroots pro-democracy movements at liberation. Scholarship largely ignored the Vichy regime’s active role in deporting French Jews. According to French historian Gérard Noiriel, Paxton’s book “had the effect of a bombshell” by providing evidence that the French state participated in deportations to Nazi camps—a fact previous
- born
- June 15, 1932, Lexington, Virginia
- field
- Political science, history
- nationality
- American
- known_for
- 1972 book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order; paradigm shift in Vichy historiography
Lore & Background
Robert Owen Paxton was born on June 15, 1932, in Lexington, Virginia. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, then earned a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1954. As a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at Merton College, Oxford, under historians including James Joll and John Roberts, earning an M.A. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1963. Paxton taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the State University of New York at Stony Brook before joining Columbia University in 1969, where he served until retiring in 1997; he remains professor emeritus. He contributed more than twenty reviews to The New York Review of Books from 1978 through 2017.
Paxton's 1972 book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order argued that the Vichy government was eager to collaborate with Nazi Germany and did not practice passive resistance. He contended that Vichy's reforms prefigured those of the 1950s and 1960s and aimed to transform French society. Upon its French translation in 1973, Paxton faced intense criticism from French historians; during a 1976 televised debate, Vichy naval leader Gabriel Auphan called him a liar. The book sold thousands of copies in France, especially among younger readers shaped by the May 1968 unrest. French historian Gérard Noiriel said the book 'had the effect of a bombshell' by showing that the French state participated in deporting Jews, a fact previously concealed. This 'Paxtonian revolution' profoundly affected French historiography. In 1997, Paxton testified as an expert witness at the trial of Maurice Papon.
Paxton also explored fascism, proposing in his 1998 paper 'The Five Stages of Fascism' that fascism is best understood through its political context and functional development rather than ideology alone. His 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism refined this model. During Donald Trump's first presidential administration, Paxton avoided calling Trump a fascist, preferring terms like oligarchy or plutocracy, but after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, he wrote in Newsweek that applying the fascist label to Trump was unavoidable.
Reader's Guide
Robert Paxton's significance lies in his transformative impact on the study of Vichy France. Before his 1972 book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, the dominant view, pioneered by Robert Aron, held that the Vichy regime practiced passive resistance to German rule. Paxton overturned this by demonstrating, with archival evidence, that Vichy eagerly collaborated with Nazi Germany and actively participated in deporting French Jews. His work sparked intense debate in France, facing vitriol from traditional historians but gaining a wide readership among a younger generation. The 'Paxtonian revolution' reshaped French historiography, making it impossible to ignore the regime's active role in the Holocaust. Paxton's later work on fascism, including his five-stage model and definition in The Anatomy of Fascism, provided a functional, context-based framework for analyzing fascist movements. His legacy is that of a scholar who forced a reckoning with national mythologies, and his interpretations remain orthodox in French historical discourse, though some anticipate future revision.
Did You Know?
- Paxton was awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government in 2009.
- He co-wrote Claude Chabrol's 1993 documentary The Eye of Vichy.
- Paxton is an avid birdwatcher and a former president of the Linnaean Society of New York.
- He contributed more than twenty reviews to The New York Review of Books between 1978 and 2017.
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