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Legacies, 1962–2020

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The Algerian War, The Algerian Revolution

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Abstract

The Algerian War/Algerian Revolution gave birth to two new nation-states: the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria and a French Republic recentred on its European frontiers. This chapter begins by exploring the political, economic, social and cultural impacts of reimagining what it meant to be French and Algerian after 1962. This includes a discussion of the situation of settlers (pieds noirs) and Algerians who had fought in the French army (harkis) after independence. The chapter then engages with the question of the memory of the war and its uses. It outlines four stages: (1) post-war practicalities and establishing the moral basis for material demands, 1962–mid-1970s; (2) identity politics: making one’s place in the story of the nation, mid-1970s–early 1990s; (3) the impact of the transnational memory turn in the 1990s; and (4) the colonial/anti-colonial past as political code and strategic weapon from the mid-2000s onwards. This approach challenges psychoanalysis-influenced interpretations which depict France and Algeria as struggling to ‘come to terms with the past’. Instead, it delineates how present political needs and socio-economic demands in Algeria and France can prompt politicians, associations and individuals to selectively revisit the past, repackaging it for new contexts.

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  1. School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

    Natalya Vince

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Vince, N. (2020). Legacies, 1962–2020. In: The Algerian War, The Algerian Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54264-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54264-1_4

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