Summary from my review (available in full at BookBrowse.com): "An intriguing glimpse into the everyday heroism of a remote French village and a former anthropologist's own quest for goodness, The Plateau provides ample food for thought, but is best read with a critical eye."

I adored this book about Le Chambon sur Lignon, with a detailed glimpse into the life of Daniel Trocme. Having recently visited Le Chambon and visited the places Paxson mentions in the book made this account come alive even more. I think the pacing is brilliant and I love how she intersperses the stories of the present day refugees with the stories surrounding Le Chambon during the Holocaust. This is an amazing title that should be shared widely!

Anthropologist Maggie Paxson says her book The Plateau is about studying peace, which is a hard thing to do, she says. She attempts it via people who take in strangers. It is about a seemingly unusual area of France where locals have sheltered refugees to protect them from evil forces. For ages, apparently. It is a very attractive premise. But it’s’ not true. The Plateau is instead a very personal journey back through World War II and the Holocaust, interspersed with Paxson’s own memories and the letters and other evidence of a relative (Daniel Trocmé) who helped fugitive children and ended up at Buchenwald.

It is a memoir, not science. I say that because Paxson is a recognized anthropologist and that’s why she was there (at least nominally). She has spent years in Russian villages, learning how their societies work. She takes on Le Chambon Sur Lignon in France with these credentials under her belt. But she gets deeply and personally involved with the locals, the immigrants, their children, their hopes and their fears. She translates for them with government agencies (She speaks English, French and Russian). It’s all very personal. The anthropology turns out to be an excuse to find her own roots.

It’s very cathartic for her. Paxson describes all of her many phobias. We learn about her miscarriage, and all her childhood memories, relevant or not. Like the time lied to her mother about climbing on the bathroom sink. It turns out she has lived in fear and guilt since childhood. She says she’s afraid of nearly everything. All the more amazing that she could pack herself off to remote Russian villages for a year at a time.

She tells us about her singing, and the history of Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen, a favorite song she ends up singing with the locals in France. Everything she sees brings back memories of her own life in Rochester, NY or in Russia.

The Plateau is an area in the Massif Central of France, southwest of Lyon and St. Etienne. It is high up, cold, thickly forested and sparsely populated. It is remote enough that governments haven’t bothered it much. It was in the news in recent years for an ugly murder of a girl student by a boy student. It happened because the boy was expelled from his previous school for rape, but the Plateau school didn’t know that, because they didn’t ask. Everyone there seems to look only forward, and what’s past is past. Paxson was there at the time of the murder, and felt it deeply, as did everyone. It put them on the map – the top story for weeks – and it hurt.

The whole book is felt deeply. There is a great deal of religion and a common god, communing with ancestors and latent appreciation of relatives. It is a total purging by Paxson, an American who got her PhD in Montreal, her husband in Europe, her bona fides in Russia and her awakening in central France. Mostly, she got to recreate the life of Daniel, who descended into the depths of the Nazi holocaust, despite not being Jewish. Harboring children was sufficient. He did it in Le Chambon Sur Lignon. Coincidence?

The descriptions are endless, microscopic, spiritual. The smells of country air, the feeling of snow, the damp, the cold, the homefires, the people in the streets and on transport. All the different international cultures in this little village. It is a long, involved story, constantly flipping among the three poles of Le Chambon today, her own history and the recreation of Daniel’s short life (He died at 33).

The history of the Plateau plays only a minor role beyond Daniel’s time there. The way the area evolved to take in fugitives does not get examined much, and certainly not deeply. Locals did take in fugitives during the war, and they do take in registered asylum seekers today, but what makes them do that could be in the air or the water and we don’t know. Paxson stops asking early and instead absorbs the ethos of the place. The book ends in Jerusalem, where a tree was planted in Daniel’s name and honor. For Paxson, it brought out her Jewish side (her mother is Jewish).

It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a memoir, but it is not social science and it answers no questions for the rest of us.

David Wineberg

Paxson weaves anthropology with history in a really interesting way in this book. The book goes back and forth between the story of Daniel Trocme, who helped shelter people in need during World War II and the present day attempt to help refugees in France through CADA. Not only was Daniel helping those in need, but the whole town was a place where those fleeing the Nazi could find a place of safety. Fast forward to the 21st century where Paxson takes a trip to The Plateau to discover the history of this small town only to find herself telling the story of today's refugees who are also escaping their homes due to war and other crises. I found Paxson's writing to be clear and moving when talking about both the past and the present, although she does sometimes have the tendency to over elaborate. She shares many insights into the life of an anthropologist and shares her own personal family history and journey that led her there. I really enjoyed her stories of connecting with refugees and helping them navigate a sometimes confusing and complicated immigration system. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in history, as well as anyone who is considering a career in anthropology. Paxson really shines when she shows us the the day to day life of an anthropologist and the different people that she meets and helps along the way.