Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, FRSL (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British philosopher and author. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published "Essays in Love" (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include "How Proust Can Change Your Life" (1997), "Status Anxiety" (2004) and "The Architecture of Happiness" (2006).
Robert Aron
In 1950, he undertook an important work of historical research on contemporary French history: "Histoire de Vichy" (1954, "History of Vichy"), which, translated into English, was termed a "neglected but pivotal book" by Nicholas Birns. The original French edition was over 700 pages and relied mainly on the testimonies of eye-witnesses and on the records of the High Court. It was the standard work of reference on Vichy for more than fifteen years and the original edition sold 53,000 copies between 1954 and 1981. Aron argued that in Philippe Pétain's view "the armistice was not and could not be anything more than a pause, allowing France to subsist temporarily while awaiting the outcome of the war between England and the Axis...for Laval, the armistice was supposed to have paved the way for a reversal of alliances". Aron therefore argued that there were "two Vichy's", Pétain's and Laval's. He also claimed that the Vichy government played a "double game" between the Allies and the Axis by holding secret talks with the Allies while officially collaborating. Aron attacked the "crimes" committed by the Resistance and he claimed that they had summarily executed "thirty to forty thousand people". Charles de Gaulle wrote to Aron disputing this figure, citing 10,000 as the more accurate estimate. According to Henry Rousso, Aron's book was made obsolete by Robert Paxton's "Vichy France" (1972).