|
|
|
Book Review
Comparative/World
Phillip C. Naylor. France and Algeria: A History of Decolonization and Transformation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2000. Pp. xviii, 457. $49.95.
|
This book is a timely reminder that France's involvement with Algeria did not end with the Evian Accords in 1962. When the war was over, Algeria was no longer French, but it was also not completely independent. Philip C. Naylor's work is a considerable contribution to our understanding of this ambiguity, a subject already explored in other ways by René Gallissot, Claude Liauzu, André Nouschi, Kristin Ross, and Benjamin Stora, among others. Naylor argues that this relationship can be characterized by two constantly recycled postures of regard: an "essentialist perspective" on the part of the French, who since 1830 have used Algeria as a mirror to reflect their own self-image as a powerful nation on the world stage; and an ongoing "existential" crisis on the part of Algerians, whose confrontations with colonialisms both past and neo have provoked a primal anxiety about what the term "Algerian" could possibly mean. |
. . . |
There are about 571 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|