Table of Contents

Foreword by Pierre Bourdieu; List of Abbreviations; Introduction: Intellectuals and Identity Part I: Decolonization and Visions of Reconciliation One History and Franco-Muslim Reconciliation: French Colonialism in Algeria; Two Imbroglios and Intellectual Legitimacy: Anticolonialism and the Comite d'Action; Three French Educational Reform and the Problem of Reconciliation: The Service des Centres Sociaux; Four The Unbearable Solitude of Being: The Question of Albert Camus Part II: Representing Rupture Five Shifting Views of Reconciliation: A Liberal Retreat from Empire?; Six Visions of Reconciliation, Visions of Rupture: Violence, Propaganda, and Representations of Difference; Seven The Politics of Othering; Eight The Legacy of Violence: Reflections on the Revolution in Two Nations; Conclusion: The Politics of Identity

Promotional Information

Traces the intricate relationship of intellectuals during the French-Algerian War and on the identity politics generated by decolonization.

About the Author

James D. Le Sueur is an associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the editor of Mouloud Feraoun's Journal, 1955-1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War (available in a Bison Books edition) and The Decolonization Reader and The Decolonization Sourcebook. He contributed new material to Ben Abro’s Assassination! July 14 and Henri Alleg’s The Question, both available in Bison Books editions.

Reviews

"An illuminating study of French intellectual responses to the war." New York Review of Books "An important work that analyzes the development of conceptions of identity in a dynamic historical situation, revealing their possibilities and limits. It deserves to be widely read and discussed." Journal of Modern History "Le Sueur's great achievement is to reveal the complexity of the political and moral choices faced by intellectuals and, by extension, by the wider populations of Algeria and France." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History "Le Sueur has provided an insightful and lively interpretation of an ongoing moral, sociological, political, and intellectual struggle taking place on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea." American Historical Review "Uncivil War is indispensable reading for re-assessing the greater historical significance of the Algerian War." Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations