Customer Reviews

The War Without a Name: France in Algeria, 1954-1962

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John Talbot does a good job reviewing the reason why this war was fought. Algeria had been French since the early 1800s, and had a large settler population of one million. These one million settlers thought of themselves as French, whereas the other eight million people resident in Algeria thought of themselves as Algerians. Talbot describes the conflict between the FLN and the French Republic. Also described was the conflict of the OSS with the French and Algerians. Good review of the government program of all four governments of the Fourth Republic, and DeGalle's progress in resolving the Algerian crisis.
Talbot is a rather dry writer, so although this book was a good summary of the conflict, it was not a page turner.

For anyone who is interested in the Colonial Era and indigenous revolts this is a must read. It will stand as the basic work on that era. It could have served as a primer for what the US shouldn't have done in Vietnam.

While the movie was wonderful and tells you just about all you need to know this is a much more primary researched and complete version of what happened and what went wrong.

While the people of France still had a nineteenth century mindset with regard to colonies DeGaulle saw the light, perhaps too late, but never the less he saved France from being bogged down in another Vietnam and Dien Bien Phu.

A real "page turner"!