The French Intifada
The Long War Between France and Its Arabs
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A provocative rethinking of France's long relationship with the Arab world
To fully understand both the social and political pressures wracking contemporary France—and, indeed, all of Europe—as well as major events from the Arab Spring in the Middle East to the tensions in Mali, Andrew Hussey believes that we have to look beyond the confines of domestic horizons. As much as unemployment, economic stagnation, and social deprivation exacerbate the ongoing turmoil in the banlieues, the root of the problem lies elsewhere: in the continuing fallout from Europe's colonial era.
Combining a fascinating and compulsively readable mix of history, literature, and politics with his years of personal experience visiting the banlieues and countries across the Arab world, especially Algeria, Hussey attempts to make sense of the present situation. In the course of teasing out the myriad interconnections between past and present in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Beirut, and Western Europe, The French Intifada shows that the defining conflict of the twenty-first century will not be between Islam and the West but between two dramatically different experiences of the world—the colonizers and the colonized.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On June 14, 1830 France invaded Algiers. It was the first invasion of an Arab country since the Crusades. While the initial invasion was surprisingly simple, the years since have been full of violence and confusion between France and the neighboring Arab world in North Africa. Hussey's (Paris: The Secret History) book is a starkly written account of the increasingly disturbing resulting relationship between the French and its Arab population that will serve as a startling and perplexing account of the state of conflict in a contemporary world. Elements of the author's own of travels during the height of Arab Spring add structure to the convoluted history as Hussey examines the many riots and revolts of the region from the Battle of Algiers in 1956 to the 2012 bombings in Toulouse, France, detailing the decades of government fallacy and colonial abuse. Hussey admits that "there is no neat or tidy conclusion" to the problems on North Africa or the post-colonial destruction. The reader alongside the author are left wondering what is to become of these "ghosts in daylight."
