France, the United States, and the Algerian War |
Buy France, the United States, and the Algerian War here, one of 749 France History books offered for sale at discount prices here in the history books section at R bookshop. There are currently 71945 history books in our history books section, and over 1,000,000 books listed in our book store. We greatly appreciate your patronage at R bookshop and look forward to offering you a large selection of great books at discount prices now and in the future. Thank you for shopping at R Bookshop!
|
You Are Here: Home > History Books > France History > Item 213
 |
France, the United States, and the Algerian War
|
by Irwin M. Wall
Sales Rank: 1196591
|
List Price: $41.95
$41.95
At Amazon
on 6-16-2008.
|
|
|
|
Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 352 pages
Published by: University of California PressEdition: 1st Edition June 18, 2001
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0520225341
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0520225343
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
Weighs: 1.7 pounds
the Economist
"You need not agree with [the] overall conclusion . . . to accept Mr. Wall's historical point."
Book Description
In this pioneering book, Irwin M. Wall unravels the intertwining threads of the protracted agony of France's war with Algeria, the American role in the fall of the Fourth Republic, the long shadow of Charles de Gaulle, and the decisive postwar power of the United States. At the heart of this study is an incisive analysis of how Washington helped bring de Gaulle to power and a penetrating revisionist account of his Algerian policy. Departing from widely held interpretations of the Algerian War, Wall approaches the conflict as an international diplomatic crisis whose outcome was primarily dependent on French relations with Washington, the NATO alliance, and the United Nations, rather than on military engagement.
Wall makes extensive use of previously unexamined documents from the Department of State, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and heretofore secret files of the Archives of the French Army at Vincennes and the Colonial Ministry at Aix-en-Provence. He argues convincingly that de Gaulle always intended to keep Algeria French, in line with his goal to make France the center of a reorganized French union of autonomous but depen- dent African states and the heart of a Europe of cooperating states. Such a union, which the French called Eurafrica, would further France's chance to be an equal partner with Britain and the United States in a reordered "Free World."
In recent years the Algerian War has reclaimed its place in popular memory in France. Its interpreters have continued to view the conflict as a national, internal drama and de Gaulle as the second-time savior who ended French participation in a ruinous colonial war. But by analyzing the conflict in terms of French foreign policy, Wall shows the pivotal role of the United States and counters certain political myths that portray de Gaulle as an emancipator of colonial peoples. Wall's interpretation of the Algerian conflict may well spark controversy and will open important new avenues of debate concerning postwar international affairs.
Reader Reviews
Irwin Wall's book on American relations with France during the Algerian war of independence is a sequel to his book on how America supported (and manipulated) France during the Fourth Republic. It is not as interesting as that book, but it provides a workmanlike overview of the problem. It shows the Eisenhower Administration in its best light (it has much less to say about Kennedy). Overall Eisenhower was an intelligent man, much more so than was thought at the time, and he was personally decent, in striking contrast to most of his successors. But his administration was deeply unimaginative and unsympathetic and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, was extremely narro-minded and dogmatic, very bad qualities for a diplomat. Notwithstanding these problems, the Americans soon realized that the French could not suppress the FLN and that ultimately autonomy and independence were inevitable. Here Eisenhower and Dulles are in their best light, tactfully offering advice to a French government that will not lessen, not (for once) being hoodwinked by the claims of the French to be fighting communism, and making their own contacts with the FLN. They are properly angry over the British-French-Israeli aggression at Suez, and understandably disturbed over the French attack on Sakiet, Tunisia, where it is not clear whether the army or the government is in control. Given the unreliability of the government they decide that it would not be that bad an idea for De Gaulle to take power and inaugurate the fifth French Republic. Much of this book narrowly reads the available diplomatic materials and often reads as a paraphrase of rather inconclusive discussions between the Americans, the French and the British on such questions as Algeria, trying to revamp NATO to increase French power (unsuccessfully), and the question of a French nuclear deterrent. Wall does have an important new thesis: in contrast to the hagiography around De Gaulle, he argues that the president did not in fact plan in 1958 to eventually give Algeria independence, but in fact wanted to keep it as French as possible. Unfortunately for the reader, the book is more than half over by the time he encounters this. The thesis is interesting and is certainly plausible; De Gaulle did appear to wish to cover Algeria in new euphemisms for dependence. And if true, it would mean that De Gaulle prolonged the war with worse results than if the government had stared down the military rebels in 1958. Still it is not definitive, since De Gaulle spoke different things to different people. Wall's verdict on De Gaulle's foreign policy is largely negative, since he achieved very little. Wall does make the interestingthat by concentrating on the prestige item of nuclear weapons, De Gaulle failed to modernize conventional forces which would have made France more effective in a post cold-war Europe. One problem with this book is that Wall is somewhat repetitive. Another, and more serious problem, is that one learns relatively little about the partner in America's negotiations. The contrast with Walter Lafeber's The Clash on Japan, or Piero Gleijeses' Shattered Hope on Guatemala, or Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie on Vietnam is striking. There is some interesting information on France; there is much less, however on Algeria itself.
Comment | |
(Report this)
Back To Top
|
France, the United States, and the Algerian War
Available from Amazon
Price: $41.95
Updated on 6-16-2008.
|
NOTICE: All prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
| We offer France, the United States, and the Algerian War and other related France History Books here at Rbookshop.com. To view more books about France History please use the previous and next buttons near the top of this page.
|
|
Search for books at
