Josephine Baker's Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom

by Hanna Diamond

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, World War II, France, American History

352 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this biopic of Josephine Baker and her war years mesmerising, and eerily timely, at a time of fractured international relations. I had the pleasure of reading this book not far from Josephine’s Chateau des Millandes in France, where local people told me how her community efforts brought running water to the village. It was interesting to visit local resistance exhibitions and museums knowing so much more now about how the maquis may have received their funding, in galas in the Middle East, hosted by Josephine, in some cases.

This is a great work of history - herstory - but more notably for me, a work of devotion worthy of Josephine’s own life path. This word, “devotion”, crept through the pages with me all the way. On the desert roads, to dining halls with pashas, to the dark echoes of segregation, and into, at last, the crypts of the Pantheon.

My favourite part was the chapter on Josephine Baker in the Middle East which took us deep into the complex politics of the region in the early 1940s, ahead of the Balfour agreement, so relevant to the situation we see now in 2025. I have found it an extraordinarily timely read given all that hope and faith Josephine and so many had for race relations and international peace in the final years of the Second World War and afterwards. Someone once told me that artists are allowed to be somewhat delusional, and for the artist-activist, Josephine’s visions and dreams - if sometimes wilfully blind on the side of French postcolonial legacies - were inspirational.

I really recommend this work of history and respect to truth, legend and a remarkable life.

[R Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book successfully tells the tale of Josephine Baker's life and career during the Second World War; her work for the French intelligence services in gathering information, and playing a useful propaganda and morale boosting role for allied forces, constantly touring and putting on her shows, very much it seems at the cost of her health, which frequently lays her low for long periods of time. An unabashed and proudly naturalised French citizen she devotedly seeks to support France, refuses to perform in Paris under the Occupation, and also seeks to promote greater racial harmony through her committment to the war effort.

For someone like me who knew little of her life outside of this, then other biographies will be necessary to learn about her earlier life. This book is tightly focused on the war period, with the rest of her timeline either side of this restricted to a few pages.

I found it informative and very interesting, but in it's meticulous referencing, and with all due historian caution at play, a fuller sense of her personality, was - not absent, you can definitely get a flavour of who she was from her own testimony, and those who she worked with who greatly admired here - but nevertheless felt a bit limited. Additionally, it seemed to often feel like in the second half of the book, that it often became a series of listing places she performed with some reviews thrown in, there did not appear to be substantial detail as to war work outside of that, whereas earlier in the book we can see how she was accumulating information through her personal connections and passing it on. That may be due to the limitations to which the primary sources have placed on what we can know, and I may be being harsh, but sometimes in that later period I thought 'is that it?' at times.

Though that should not take away from the fact she was clearly an undoubted francophile who DID very much play an important role - she was awarded honours afterwards after all and her ashes interred in the pantheon - for which she was justly proud, and she should be rightly appreciated.

[Tbfrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hanna Diamond seeks to unravel the mysterious story of Josephine Baker's clandestine work for the French Intelligence service during the Second World War in a metiulously researched and cross-referenced examination of the available historical records and newspaper archives. The need to maintain the historical context dominates the narrative of the African American woman from St. Louis who gained stardom in Paris as an entertainer, became a French citizen through marriage, and when war came, devoted her energies and service to her adopted nation.

The story is complicated by gaps in the archives, the details of intelligence missions supported by attestations rather that specific records. Inaccuracies in published accounts as well as exaggerations and revisions that crept into the retelling by the principals muddy the picture as well. In that sense, this reader was left with the impression of a story left undone. However, Josephine Baker's committment to France during the war is unquestioned. Her ability to adapt and reinvent herself as times and circumstances changed was remarkable, and her life as a whole inspirational.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising at the outset, but it drags heavily toward the end. Too often, the gaps in historical records are padded with filler that adds little.

Some passages – especially on her time in North Africa – are vivid and compelling, while others are painfully hard to get through.

Baker’s commitment to the Resistance and to fighting racism is commendable and beyond question, which makes it a little surprising how much of her postwar life was spent seeking personal recognition for those very contributions.

However, her inclusion in the Panthéon by President Macron in 2021 offered her that well-deserved recognition at last.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I knew Josephine Baker was an Allied spy during WW2, the specifics were entirely new to me. This book does a great job at bringing her story to life, while attempting to separate truth from embellishment. It also drives home just how much of what is taught in America about WW2 is through a very specific lens.

[Helen Mckee · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting story about a real French resistance "spy." Josephine was able to interact with people across cultures due to her status as an entertainer. Her later years were sad as she struggled to keep entertaining, fight racism, and get recognition for her war-time efforts.