The Invention of Decolonization

"Although he acknowledges that France's 'civilizing mission' never lived up to its press notices, Todd Shepard is probably correct when he notes that the war exposed once and for all the conceit that France's 'Republican universalism' could unite peoples of different races, cultures, and languages around a single vision of national unity."—Douglas Porch, Times Literary Supplement, September 21, 2007
"A detailed, inventive, and engaging analysis of the debates surrounding the thorny issue of who could be French and under what conditions that arose as eight years of armed conflict drew to a close."—French History
"With the tremendous interest in French colonialism and identity, in the relationship of the former colonies to the French nation and in colonial and postcolonial discourses, Todd Shepard's timely and significant work will be of interest to a wide range of scholars. Using Algeria as a case study, Shepard shows how the history of French imperialism and anti-imperialism was rewritten after Algerian independence by bureaucrats, politicians, and journalists in such a way as to present decolonization as 'a predetermined end point' that was inevitable, rather than as the failure of a genuine project of national integration in the colonies."—Modern and Contemporary France
"The need for historically specific accounts of decolonization has arguably never been more urgent. The Invention of Decolonization illuminates how 'the end of French Algeria' reconfigured the social, sexual, and political orders of postwar France. Todd Shepard thereby joins the story of the Algerian War and its aftermath not just to histories of postcolonialism, but as provocatively to contemporary debates about national belonging, racialized citizenship, confessional politics, and state-sponsored efforts at remembrance, repatriation, and reconciliation."—Antoinette Burton, Professor of History and Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
"Todd Shepard's examination of the way representations of Judaism, sexual orientation, and gender figured into political debates about decolonization is pathbreaking. Shepard makes a compelling analysis of how the war in Algeria and efforts to resolve the issues it raised were crucial to the making of the Fifth Republic. His excellent book is exemplary of new developments in conceiving and writing the history of France and Algeria."—Donald M. Reid, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"Todd Shepard's powerful book shows both how the decolonization of Algeria became thinkable in metropolitan France and why the French failed to come to terms with the contradictions inherent to the republican project, as they simultaneously distanced themselves from responsibility for the war. Shepard convincingly reveals the war's crucial role in recasting definitions of French identity and citizenship, which continue to shape current debates about racial inequality, exclusion, assimilation, immigration, and the place of Islam in France."—Caroline Ford, University of California, Los Angeles
"Todd Shepard, in this highly original and well-researched account, uncovers how France, attempting to hold together its empire after World War II, tried to become more inclusive—extending citizenship rights and a form of affirmative action to Muslim Algerians, only to reverse itself after losing Algeria in 1962. Abolishing by fiat Muslims' citizenship rights, now acting as if 'colony' and 'metropole' were necessarily starkly separated, France redefined itself as a singular nation in a more unambiguous and more exclusionary manner than had been the case before."—Frederick Cooper, New York University, author of Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History
"The Algerian War has attracted huge attention in France during the last ten years. Most historians, however, have assumed that their task is simply to describe the workings of an apparently unstoppable process and they have, to a large extent, concentrated on the behavior of the French army. Todd Shepard's book approaches this debate from a new angle. Partly by looking through a wide lens—one that encompasses everything from Brigitte Bardot to Gaston Monnerville—and partly by taking the arguments in defense of Algérie Française seriously, he shows how departure from Algeria helped to create a new idea of Frenchnesss. This is an important book with implications for the current state of France as well as for many aspects of French history between 1830 and 1962."—Richard Vinen, King's College, London