Robert O. Paxton is professor of history emeritus at Columbia University. A specialist in the history of western Europe in the era of the two world wars, he has written extensively on France under Nazi occupation, including VICHY FRANCE: OLD GUARD AND NEW ORDER (Columbia University Press, 2001) and VICHY FRANCE AND THE JEWS (Stanford University Press, 1995). His most recent work is THE ANATOMY OF FASCISM (Alfred Knopf, 2004).