A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (118 page)

Moureau, Maurice,
Des Algériens accusent
… (Paris, 1959)

M’Rabet, Fadéla,
La Femme Algérienne
(Paris, 1964)

Nicol, Alex,
La Bataille de l’O.A.S.
(Paris, 1963)

Nora, Pierre,
Les Français d’Algérie
(Paris, 1961)

Noureddine, Meziane,
Un Algérien raconte
(Paris, 1960)

O’Ballance, Edgar,
The Algerian Insurrection, 1954–1962
(London, 1967)

Ortiz, Joseph Fernand,
Mes combats
(Paris, 1964)

Ouzegane, Amar,
Le Meilleur combat
(Paris, 1962)

Paillet, Claude, (1)
Dossier secret de l’Algérie
(Paris, 1961)

——, (2)
Deuxième Dossier secret de l’Algérie
(Paris, 1962)

Passeron, A.,
De Gaulle parle
(Paris, 1962)

Pickles, Dorothy,
Algeria and France
(London, 1963)

Plume, Christian, and Demaret, Pierre (pseud.),
Target de Gaulle
(London, 1974)

Quandt, William B.,
Revolution and Political Leadership: Algeria, 1954–1968
(Cambridge, Mass., 1969)

Roy, Jules,
The War in Algeria
(New York, 1961)

Salan, Raoul,
Mémoires: Fin d’un Empire

(iii)
Algérie française
(Paris, 1972)

(iv)
Algérie, de Gaulle et moi
(Paris, 1974)

Sergent, Pierre, (i)
Ma peau au bout de mes idées
(Paris, 1967)

(ii)
La Bataille
(Paris, 1968)

Sérigny, Alain de, (1)
La Révolution du 13 mai
(Paris, 1958)

——, (2)
Échos d’Alger
: (ii)
L’Abandon, 1946–1962
(Paris, 1974)

Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques,
Lieutenant en Algérie
(Paris, 1957)

Servier, Jean (1)
Dans l’Aurès sur les pas des rebelles
(Paris, 1955)

——, (2)
Adieu Djebel
(Paris, 1958)

——, (3)
Demain en Algérie
(Paris, 1959)

——, (4)
Les Portes de l’année
(Paris, 1962)

Simon, Pierre-Henri,
Contre la Torture
(Paris, 1957)

Smith, T.,
The French Stake in Algeria, 1945–1962
(London, 1978)

Soustelle, Jacques, (1)
Aimée et Souffrante Algérie
(Paris, 1956)

——, (2)
L’Espérance trahi, 1958–1961
(Paris, 1962)

——, (3)
La Page n’est pas tournée
(Paris, 1965)

Sulzberger, C. L.,
The Test: de Gaulle and Algeria
(London, 1962)

Susini, Jean-Jacques,
Histoire de l’O.A.S.
(i) (Paris, 1963)

Talbott, J.,
The War without a Name: France in Algeria, 1954–1962
(London, 1981)

Taleb, Ahmed,
Lettres de prison
(Algiers, 1966)

Terrenoire, Louis,
De Gaulle et l’Algérie. Témoignage pour l’histoire
(Paris, 1964)

Thayer, George,
The War Business
(New York, 1969)

Thomas, Hugh,
The Suez Affair
(London, 1967)

Thorez, Maurice,
Textes choisis sur l’Algérie
(Paris, 1962)

Tillion, Germaine, (1)
L’Algérie en 1957
(Paris, 1957)

——, (2)
Les Ennemis complémentaires
(Paris, 1960)

——, (3)
L’Afrique bascule vers l’avenir
(Paris, 1961)

——, (4)
Le Harem et les cousins
(Paris, 1966)

Tournoux, Jean-Raymond, (1)
Secrets d’état
(Paris, 1960)

——, (2)
L’Histoire secrète
(Paris, 1962)

——, (3)
Jamais dit
(Paris, 1971)

Tricot, Bernard,
Les Sentiers de la paix, Algérie 1958–1962
(Paris, 1972)

Trinquier, Roger, (1)
La Guerre moderne
(Paris, 1961)

——, (2)
Guerre, subversion, révolution
(Paris, 1968)

Tripier, Philippe,
Autopsie de la guerre d’Algérie
(Paris, 1972)

Vallet, Eugène,
Un Drame algérien: la verité sur les émeutes de mai 1945
(Paris, 1948)

Vidal-Naquet, P., (1)
La Raison d’état
(Paris, 1962)

——, (2)
Torture, Cancer of Democracy
(Harmondsworth, 1963)

Viratelle, Gérard,
L’Algérie algérienne
(Paris, 1970)

Williams, Philip M., (1)
Politics in Post-War France
(London, 1954)

——, (2)
Wars, Plots and Scandals in Post-War France
(Cambridge, 1970)

Yacef, Saadi,
Souvenirs de la bataille d’Alger
(Paris, 1962)

Ysquierdo, Antoine,
Une Guerre pour rien
(Paris, 1966)

FILMS

La Battaglia di Algeri
, Pontecorvo, 1965

La Guerre d’Algérie
, Yves Courrière and Philippe Monnier (Reggane Films)

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS PUBLISHED SINCE 1975

Ahmed, Hocine Ait,
Mémoires d’un Combattant: L’Esprit d’Indépendance 1942–1952
(Paris, 1983)

Albes, Wolf Dietrich,
Albert Camus und der Algerienkrieg, Die Auseinandersetzung der algerienfranzösischen Schriftsteller mit dem “Directeure de Conscience” im Algerienkrieg, 1954–62
, (Tübingen, 1990)

Aubert, Pierre,
Le Secret des Rousses
(Paris, 1985)

Benyahia, Mohammed,
La Conjuration au Pouvoir
(Paris, 1988)

Bergot, Erwan,
Le Dossier Rouge: Services Secrets contre FLN
(Paris, 1976)

Dahlab, Saad,
Mission Accompli
(Algiers, 1990)

Doré-Audibert, André,
Des Françaises dans la Guerre de Libération
(Paris, 1995)

Faivre, Maurice,
Un Village de Harkis: des Babors au Drouais
(Paris, 1994)

François and J. P. Séréni,
Un Algérien nommé Boumedienne
(Paris, 1976)

Haroun, Ali,
La 7e Wilaya: La Guerre du FLN en France 1954–1962
(Paris, 1986)

Hidouci, Ghazi,
Algérie: la Libération Inachevée
(Paris, 1995)

Jacquin, Henri,
La Guerre Secrète en Algérie
(Paris, 1977)

Kettle, Michael,
De Gaulle and Algeria 1940–1960
(London, 1993)

Khedda, Benyoucef Ben,
Les Accords d’Evian
(Algiers, 1986)

Les Origines du 1er Novembre 1954
(Algiers, 1989)

Lahouari, Addi,
L’Algérie et la Democratie
(Paris, 1994)

Maillarde, Etienne,
L’Algérie Depuis
(Paris, 1975)

Mammeri, Khalfa,
Abane Ramdane, Héros de la Guerre d’Algérie
(Paris, 1988)

Minces, Juliette,
L’Algérie de la Révolution (1963–64)
(Paris, 1988)

Minne, Danièle, and Amrane, Djamila,
Femmes Au Combat
(Algiers, 1993)

Montagnon, Pierre,
L’Affaire Si Salah
(Paris, 1987)

Murray, Simon,
Legionnaire; The Real Life Story of an Englishman in the French Foreign Legion
(London, 1978)

Stora, Benjamin,
La Gangrène et l’Oubli: la mémoire de la guerre d’Algérie
(Paris, 1992)

Talbot, John,
The War Without a Name
(London, 1980)

Teguia, Mohammed,
L’Algérie en Guerre
(Algiers, 1988)

Brett, Michael, “Anglo-Saxon attitudes: The Algerian war of Independence in Retrospect” (article in Journal of African History, vol. 34, 1995, pp. 217–235)

Reference Notes

As noted in the Preface, since 1954 a mountain of published material has appeared on the Algerian war, the vast majority in France, a discouragingly small proportion in Algeria itself. The foregoing bibliography alone contains 300 book titles; yet they represent only the author’s own selection out of a far larger total. Among periodicals, since there was not one of significance in Europe, the United States, or the Third World which, during those seven and a half years, did
not
devote long columns to the Algerian war, I make no attempt to list them here, except where a specific reference has been made in the text. I may equally be accused of neglect in having meted out the same cavalier treatment (in the interests of space) to the pyramids of contemporary tracts and pamphlets. As it is, many of the published works that are listed here bear, inevitably, the marks of self-justification or of propaganda, and suffer all the limitations of contemporary chronicles. But, provided these limitations are discounted, they have their value nonetheless. France has not yet released official papers relating to the war; on the other hand, so much has already been divulged in the writings and personal reminiscences of participants that it is to be doubted whether the overall picture of the war will be greatly changed when the secrecy barrier is lifted. The same may be conjectured about the unreleased Algerian source material, though for a different set of reasons.

There exists no single-volume history of the war that is satisfactory in itself (hence the temerity of the present book, undertaken in an attempt to fill at least a corner of the void). Books so far published tend to be partial, either in their sympathies or because dealing with only a portion of the overall picture. Of those authors to whom I have referred generally almost throughout, the following should be mentioned. The best-selling, four-volume work by Yves Courrière, running to over 1000 pages, provides the most detailed day-by-day account of the war itself. The primary source material used by Courrière — particularly in his interviews with such F.L.N. leaders as the late Belkacem Krim — is irreplaceable. On the other hand, he is sharply criticised in contemporary Algeria for relying excessively on the version of events given by Krim and other latterday opponents of the Boumedienne regime, and has been accused by
pieds noirs
of undue hardness to their cause. His books are also, by definition, journalism (but good journalism) with its limitation of occasionally falling short on historical perspective, and they deliberately make no effort to relate the coeval march of events in metropolitan France. One of the most objective, and sensible, concise general accounts remains that of Edward Behr, an Anglo-American journalist frequently on the Algerian scene, even though it was published before the war ended, and is therefore incomplete. Another foreign journalist’s book similarly incomplete is Michael Clark’s, terminating shortly after the advent of de Gaulle. More than most, Clark generally supports the
pied noir
case; nonethless, his book contains much useful documentation. More up-to-date, but equally critical of the “policy of abandon” and also well documented, is Philippe Tripier. A valuable and trustworthy neutral witness close to the F.L.N. leadership is the Swiss journalist, Charles-Henri Favrod. Also good on the F.L.N. cadres are Gordon and Quandt. Although I have derived much material from individual Algerian works relating to specific aspects, there remains, alas, no source on the war as a whole by an Algerian writer.