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

Le Sueur (Nebraska) covers the period 1954-62 in Algeria when the French military and Algerian nationalists fought one of the bloodiest wars of independence of the 20th century. The primary focus is on the relationship of intellectual communities in France and Algeria to the war and on the identity politics generated by decolonization. Much of the material used is presented for the first time, according to the author, who seeks to unravel the strict state control of material relating to the war, which, he argues, was a crucible for intellectuals and has remained a critical dimension of the ongoing debates in France and Algeria, hence the validity of the study. Critics have called the presentation forceful, well argued, and "superbly researched," deriving from archival sources and personal interviews, and it is hailed as an interdisciplinary study of the first order. The chapter on Camus alone is worth the price of the book. In addition to Camus, such notables as Jacques Soustelle, Raymond Aron, Frantz Fannon, and a number of other notables were among those who agonized over the Algerian question. General and upper-division undergraduate collections and above. C. E. Farah University of Minnesota