Writing about the life of French people under the Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1944, and tracing the mainsprings and responses to the policy of collaboration by Vichy France - that part of the country south of the Cher ruled by Marshal Pétain - was the task that Henri Amouroux, who has died aged 87, set himself. He was 20 at the time of the fall of France, and in 10 volumes published between 1976 and 1993 combined diligent research and the lively style born of his early training as a journalist.
The sometimes provocative titles of his books were chosen to attract attention, give a flavour of their content and raise some thorny issues: Le peuple du désastre (The People of Disaster, 1976), Les beaux jours des collabos (The Golden Days of the Collaborationists, 1978), Le peuple révéille (The Awakened People, 1979) or Les passions et les haines (The Passions and the Hatreds, 1981). Amouroux made his readers aware of the tragedy of good intentions that unfolded in those years, which culminated in Frenchmen being pitted against Frenchmen as the resistance developed, with the good and the bad present on both sides.
Born in Périgueux, in the Dordogne, Amouroux took a diploma from the École Supérieure de Journalisme and worked for the Opera-Mundi press agency in Paris (1938-44). Later, he was a journalist for La Petite Gironde, a Bordeaux newspaper. He was involved in the resistance and awarded the Croix de Guerre. Between 1944 and 1974, he worked at the leading regional newspaper, Sud-Ouest, of which he became director in 1968. In 1974-1975, he was director of France-Soir.
From the late 1970s, Amouroux concentrated on his Vichy project, and his works were generally acclaimed. When I first met him, in 1980, he gave me a copy of the second volume, Quarante millions de Pétainistes (1977). I was struck by the words he wrote for me on the flyleaf, describing his attempt to make people understand the psychological evolution of French people d'aprés quarante, many of whom were still in denial at the collapse of their country.
His greatest quality as a historian - apart from his readability - was his ability to empathise with the states of mind that went into creating the complex and changing French national consciousness during the occupation. At a time when Vichy is still a taboo subject in schools and is taught with difficulty at university, Amouroux urged his readers to come to terms with the past. The last volume in the series was entitled La page n'est pas encore tournée (It's Not Over Yet, 1993).
He was elected to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1978, becoming its president in 1990-91. He received the Legion of Honour and became a member of the committee of the French national archives.
A round, likeable man, Amouroux cut an avuncular figure at meetings. He leaves his wife Colette, two daughters and a son.
· Henri Amouroux, journalist, historian and academician, born July 1 1920; died August 5 2007