A sociological study of the cultural choices and identity negotiation of North African women immigrants in France.

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.

Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848-2016 explores how black women in France itself, the French Caribbean, Gorée, Dakar, Rufisque, and Saint-Louis experienced and reacted to French colonialism and how gendered readings of colonization, decolonization, and social movements cast new light on the history of French colonization and of black France. In addition to delineating the powerful contributions of black French women in the struggle for equality, contributors also look at the experiences of African American women in Paris and in so doing integrate into colonial and postcolonial conversations the strategies black women have engaged in negotiating gender and race relations à la française. Drawing on research by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds and countries, this collection offers a fresh, multidimensional perspective on race, class, and gender relations in France and its former colonies, exploring how black women have negotiated the boundaries of patriarchy and racism from their emancipation from slavery to the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Derderian looks at the large North African population in France and their attempts for recognition in a country which has long denied its rich immigration past and present. He considers how the North African community has developed from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, especially in their political and cultural initiatives. Derderian examines the radio station Radio Beur and the television show La Famille Ramdam , as well as political initiatives and the role of ethnic minorities in defining prominent French sites of memory such as the working-class suburbs or banlieues and the Algerian War. Based largely on oral history, Derderian draws from a wealth of interviews with North African artists and creators as well as various French cultural actors.

A seasoned expert on the Maghreb offers a fine-grained analysis of the region's politics in a time of upheaval.

"The translation of Breaking the Silence allows us, finally, to listen directly to the voices of Muslim women in France. Fadela Amara's book is at once autobiography, an analysis of the degradation of male-female relations in France's working-class suburbs, and an engrossing chronicle of a political movement. Helen Chenut's deft translation and comprehensive introduction shows us complex universe inhabited by young women of North African descent in contemporary France."—Susanna Barrows, author of Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History "This book delivers a timely and evocative corrective to stereotypes of Muslim women. Amara discusses with sensitivity the complex gender position of Muslim women in a Western European country in which the conflict between liberal republican ideals and cultural norms has had particularly violent consequences for women. Chenut's fine translation brings Amara's words to life and her excellent introduction places the Muslim women's movement in the context of the racial and cultural tensions that plague France's banlieues today."—Laura Levine Frader, co-editor, Gender and Class in Modern Europe

The French North African Crisis analyses the postwar breakdown in French imperial rule in North West Africa, concentrating primarily upon the Algerian war of independence. The book highlights the human tragedy involved and the divisive consequences within French metropolitan politics of intractable colonial conflict. It further examines how far the protracted crisis of colonial control in North Africa shaped French foreign and security policy and this impacted upon Anglo-French relations, the western alliance and the wider process of decolonization.