The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 by William L. Shirer deals with the collapse of the French Third Republic as a result of Hitler's invasion during World War II. As a CBS correspondent in Germany during the climactic event under discussion, and as a frequent visitor to and correspondent from France during the prewar years, Shiirer was left to question how Germany had overrun France within weeks in 1940. These two countries had fought each other for four years in 1914-1918, with France successfully resisting Germany at every turn of battle along... the Western Front during World War I. Shirer, who knew the French language, did much of his own research for this 1969 book, talking with surviving politicians and French leaders from the immediate prewar period as well as those who were on duty during the final catastrophe. His conclusion was that France had defeated herself. Unhealed wounds in its civil society, dating back to the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s, had left France's political Left and Right with unassuageable feelings of resentment towards their opponents.
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