Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (Society & Culture in the Modern Middle East) [Paperback]

Patricia M. E. Lorcin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1860643760 | ISBN-13: 978-1860643767

Using colonial Algeria as the starting point of her analysis, Patricia Lorcin explores the manner in which ethnic categories and cultural distinctions are developed and used in society. She focuses on the colonial images of "good" Kabyle and "bad" Arab (usually referred to as the Kabyle Myth) and examines the circumstances out of which they arose, as well as the intellectual and ideological influences which shaped them. Her study demonstrates how these images were used to negate the underlying beliefs and values of the dominated society and to impose French cultural, social and political values. By tracing the evolution of ethnic categories over time, Lorcin reveals their inherently unstable nature and the continual process of redefinition in accordance with circumstance and political or social expediency.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patricia Lorcin has a doctorate from Columbia University and presently lives in Abidjan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 323 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (July 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860643760
• ISBN-13: 978-1860643767
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Study of Algeria, January 13, 2003

By 

Cynical New Yorker (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (Society & Culture in the Modern Middle East) (Paperback)

In working on my graduate thesis, this book proved to be the single most helpful book of the hundreds I looked at about Algeria. Lorcin carefully examines the way race and ethnicity were created by the French. Although she tends to overstate the pre-existing divisions between the Berber and Arab population prior to French occupation, her analysis clearly shows the colonial French tendency to group the world into good ethnic groups and bad ethnic groups. In this case the Berbers fit the first mold and the Arabs fit the latter in the French mindset.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Scholarship, April 17, 2006

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (Society & Culture in the Modern Middle East) (Paperback)

Imperial Identities is a great book. It provides a wealth of information on Algeria's history under the French colonial rule. Those who read the book can learn a great deal about Algeria's history. It also shows, quite convincingly, how the French invented the Kabyle Myth to try to further their colonial aims in the country. (Elsewhere, Prof. Lorcin demonstrates how French imperialists imagined a link between French colonialism and the Roman influence in North Africa).

Prof. Lorcin has good intentions and she is knowledgeable about the topic at hand. In fact, she is more knowledgeable than Algerian scholars who could not see the continuation of the Kabyle Myth to this date.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some useful historical information.., November 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (Society & Culture in the Modern Middle East) (Paperback)

This book contains some useful historical information but if an in-depth study of the history of Colonial Algeria is required, one can find better works.

Lorcin's simplistic thesis on the "Kabyle Myth" (Berber Good/Arab bad) really adds nothing to the reader's knowledge of the actual differences between the ethnic groups in Algeria. The fact that the European powers divided colonial societies along racial, ethic, and religious lines is widely understood.

To gain a true understanding of the differences (something I sought but unfortunately did not find in this book) between the Berbers and Arabs in Algeria would require a study into the Algerian people and nation itself rather than just the colonial archives of French, British, and Belgium libraries.