Uncivil war: intellectuals and identity politics during the decolonization of Algeria

Abstract

Uncivil War is a provocative study of intellectuals who confronted loss of France's most prized overseas possession, colonial Algeria. Tracing intellectual history of one of most violent wars of European decolonization, James D. Le Sueur illustrates how such key figures as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Tillion, Jacques Soustelle, Raymond Aron, Claude Levi-Strauss, Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, Mouloud Feraoun, Jean Amrouche, and Pierre Bourdieu agonized over question. As Le Sueur argues, these and other individuals forged new notions of nation and nationalism, giving rise to a politics of identity that continues to influence debate around world. Indeed, French-Algerian War occupies a seminal place in colonial and contemporary history. How did these varied intellectuals-many of whom had been influential in either shaping or critiquing ideology of colonial enterprise-reconstruct French national identity during decolonization? How was Algerian national identity also reconceptualized, in both intellectual and political circles, French and Algerian, on both right and left? How was colonial notion of French universalism debated and, by many, invalidated? What has politically charged concept of the Other to do with Algeria's decolonization? Le Sueur turns to a wide array of public archives, previously unstudied private collections, interviews, and published works to examine dynamism of these inquiries. He investigates Franco-Muslim relations from reconciliation to rupture, a transition resulting from rise of anticolonialism, political radicalism, military extremism, and Algerian nationalism, as well as looming threat of civil war in France. As Le Sueur reveals, it was incumbent upon intellectuals of day to respond to these crises in public arena. Whether to celebrate decolonization or decry it as a turning point in French and North African history, intellectuals engaged fully in identity debates and, in so doing, attended to a variety of political, social, moral, and even their own professional concerns. An interdisciplinary work of first order, Uncivil War combines anthropology, history, critical theory, and postcolonial studies in an intimate look at a pivotal and highly contested moment in modern history.