A Savage War of Peace

The 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.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Illustrations
Map of Algeria
Map of ALgiers
Preface

PART ONE: Prelude 1830-1954
"A Town of Great Interest"
"Ici, c'est la France"
In the Middle of the Ford

PART TWO: The War 1954-1958
All Saint's Day, 1954
The Sorcerer's Cauldron
The FLN: From Bandung to Soummam
The Second Fronts of Guy Mollett
"Why We Must Win"
The Battle of Algiers
Lost Round for the FLN
The World Takes Notice
Le Dernier Quart d'Heure

PART THREE: The Hardest of ALl Victories 1958-1962
A Kind Resurrection
"Je Vous Ai Compris"
The FLN Holds Its Breath
Neither the Djebel nor the Night
"Aux Barricades!"
"This Prince of Ambiguity"
Revolution in the Revolution
De Gaulle Caught in the Draught
The Generals' Putsch
Pvertures for Peace
The Suitcase or the Coffin
Exodus
The Page is Turned

Afterword
Colonel Godard's Organogram
Political and Military Abbreviations
Chronology
Bibliography
Reference Notes
Clossary
Index