Robert Paxton

Robert O Paxton is Professor Emeritus of Modern European History at Columbia University. He specialises in the history of Europe in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on fascism and on France during the German occupation. Among his works are Parades and Politics at Vichy (1966), Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order (1972, new ed. 2001), Vichy France and the Jews (with co-author Michael Marrus) (1981, new edition 2019), French Peasant Fascism (1997), and The Anatomy of Fascism (2004). His Twentieth Century Europe, now with co-author Julie Hessler, is in its 5th edition (2011). All of these works have also been published in French translation. Paxton was called to testify as an expert witness in the war crimes trials in France of Paul Touvier (1994) and Maurice Papon (1997). He was made an officier in the Légion d’honneur by the French government in 2009.