A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics)
by Alistair Horne
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alistair HorneEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Illustrated
Published: 2006-10-10
ISBN: 1590172183
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Book Reviews of A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics)
Book Review: A magnificent book
Summary: 5 Stars
This was an excellent history of the Algerian War for Independence. Alistair Horne does a great job giving readers a balanced perspective, and gives a wide range of perspective to this significant work. The book does a nice job flowing between the French and the Algerian perspective, but not only that but he takes a top down approach detailing these events, which broadens the focus while giving the readers a greater insight into not only the leadership's prosecution of the war, but the perspective of those on the ground fighting and trying to live through this war. This means that the human tragedies that accompany a terrible conflict such as this one are not left out. This creates a picture that is much more close to whole than a lot of other works.
The significance of this work cannot be overstated. This book does an excellent job detailing an asymmetrical war fought against a superior force, and how each of those forces acted and reacted throughout this conflict. The author discusses in some detail the lessons the Algerians took from some recent successes of Third World nations in fighting nations like France. The Algerians took lessons from the French misadventure in Vietnam, and applied those lessons to their own conflict with the French. While both sides attempted to adapt to the other's actions, it shows the huge disadvantage that an occupying army faces when confronting a determined and motivated foe. As French countermeasures were pursued they tended to run the risk of alienating one population or another whether the pied noir's or the Algerians. This presented the French with the impossible task of trying to please both groups, which ended by ensuring the alienation of both.
The power of this book is in what it can teach about this type of warfare. The author has done such a great job outlining the actions and reactions of the various and disparate groups that this book is a definitive look at this type of warfare. The similarities between the way the French fought in Algeria, and the problems that the U.S. faced in Vietnam and in Iraq and Afghanistan today are striking.
Read this book because it is a wonderfully well written history of the Algerian War of Independence, but also read this book because of what it can teach about this type of war. It will give you a better historical understanding of past conflicts, but will also give the reader an insight into the conflicts of today and tomorrow. If you want to understand Iraq and Afghanistan then you should read this book.
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Summary of A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics)
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.
Algeria Books
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