A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture. Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought war ended in Algeria’s independence, and yet—as Alistair Horne argues in his new preface to his now-classic work of history—its repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but throughout the world. Indeed from today’s vantage point the Algerian War looks like a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s and that now ravages the Middle East, from Beirut to Baghdad—struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity. A Savage War of Peace is the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that brings that terrible and complicated struggle to life with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is essential reading for our own violent times as well as a lasting monument to the historian’s art. |
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Abd-el-Kader administrator al-Qaeda Albert Camus Algerian Muslim Algerian nation Algerian nationalists Algerian War Algiers Arab assimilation Aurès Badis Battle of Algiers Bella Ben Badis Blum-Viollette Bill bomb Bougie Boumedienne Bourguiba of Tunisia Bugeaud Butterlin cadi's ear caid Casbah centenary century civil civilisation communes mixtes Constantine area declared Étoile European exile Ferhat Abbas France's French Army French citizenship French colonial French policy Gaulle Gaulle's gendarmes Ghardaia governor-general Guelma hand Harold Macmillan hectares historians indigènes Iraq Islamic Kabyles Keystone Press killed land later Maghreb massacred Messali Hadj metropolitan France miles million Muslims Mitidja modern movement Muslim Muslim population national liberation never North Africa once Oran Paris peace pied noir Pierre police political preface présence française present-day Algeria President Bourguiba reforms regime religious remains revolution revolutionary Savage Second World seemed Senate Sétif Sheikh Sidi-Ferruch Teitgen Tipasa torture Tubert Tunisia Ulema uprising Valère Viollette West writing