Photo by Ryan Steed
Jeffrey H. Jackson is Professor of History at Rhodes College. His most recent book, Paper Bullets, which was longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and selected as an Editor’s Choice “Best of the Best” for 2020 by Booklist, tells the story of an audacious anti-Nazi resistance campaign undertaken by an unlikely pair. Two French women -- Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe (better known today by their artistic names Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore) -- drew on their skills as Parisian avant-garde artists to write and distribute hundreds of notes, songs, poems, and drawings designed to demoralize German troops occupying their adopted home of Jersey.
To do so, they assumed the identity of a Nazi soldier, calling themselves “The Soldier With No Name.” As the war continued, they escalated their actions, often putting themselves at great personal risk all while pretending to be one of the enemy. Lucy and Suzanne were in great danger because of who they were: lesbian partners known for cross-dressing and their gender-bending photography back in Paris, Lucy’s Jewish heritage, and their communist affiliations.
But they persisted in their efforts, even after being arrested and sentenced to death. The story takes readers inside the day-to-day struggles of civilians surviving in occupied territory and facing tough, sometimes gut-wrenching, choices. This book is the first to tell the true story of these women’s powerful resistance against Nazi repression.
He is also the author of Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 and Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris, both of which have been received with high acclaim.
In addition, he has co-edited The Thinking Space: The Cafe as a Cultural Institution in Paris, Vienna, and Italy, as well as Music and History: Bridging the Disciplines, and The Underground Reader: Sources in the Transatlantic Counterculture. [To see more about all of Jackson’s books, click here.]
Jackson is a sought-after public speaker and commentator who has appeared in documentary films, on television, and been interviewed on radio and podcasts. For information and links to media related to Paris Under Water, visit the book’s website.
His articles have appeared in leading academic journals, including Journal of Urban History; French Historical Studies; French Cultural Studies; French Politics, Culture, and Society; Journal of Popular Culture; and Humanities, the Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Jackson received his B.S. in history summa cum laude with High Honors from Vanderbilt University in 1993 and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester in 1999. At Rhodes College, he teaches courses in modern European history, cultural history, French history, environmental studies, and interdisciplinary humanities. In 2011, Jackson won the prestigious Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research, Rhodes' highest honor for faculty.
For more, visit Jackson's Rhodes College website.
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