The admiral of the Collaboration

This book greatly disturb those who lived in the legend of a moderate and timer Darlan opposed a pro-German and pushy Laval: Darlan wanted to commit early France in the way of active military cooperation, and the portrait that emerges from this book is very different from the "Royale" wanted to create and maintain: Darlan is neither the creator of the Navy (Georges Leygues to give what belongs to him) nor the savior of France; it was an admiral careerist, oscillating as the author says between Peter Principle and Zelig.
The merit of Bernard Costagliola is to have had access to many unpublished archives, and having successfully managed to exploit them; his knowledge of evidence enabling it to profile an opportunist who was not at the height of his work, and who went to Berchtesgaden offer the support of the French state in Nazi Germany.
Beyond the case Darlan, this book takes us into the mechanisms of Vichy and Collaboration; the actors in the drama (Benoist-Méchin, Esteva, Laborde, Robert ...) do not grow out.
Sometimes dense book is Costagliola end exciting end and cancels the theses defended by Huan and knife-Bégarie.Darlan has been at least as well as Laval, a written and collaborateur.Brillamment sitting on archives, the author's conclusions are final.