French Intifada

This provocative look at France''s relationship with the Arab world offers a bracing mix of journalism and history [that] couldn''t be more timely (Mitchell Cohen The New York Times Book Review).To fully understand the social and political pressures wracking contemporary France—and indeed all of Europe—we must look beyond domestic issues. Unemployment economic stagnation and social deprivation certainly exacerbate the ongoing turmoil in the banlieues. But as Andrew Hussey demonstrates here the root of the problem lies in the continuing fallout from Europe''s colonial era.Hussey draws on his deep knowledge of history literature and politics as well as his years of personal experience in France Algeria and other Arab countries to provide a nuanced holistic view of the present situation. In the course of teasing out the myriad interconnections between past and present 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.