Algerian Independence and the British Left

Mélanie Torrent is Professor of British and Commonwealth History at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK and was a junior member of the Institut universitaire de France. She is the author of Diplomacy and Nation-Building: Franco-British Relations and Cameroon at the End of Empire (2012).

The book’s true strength is in its emphatic transnationalism, depicting not only the British political left’s relations with Algeria but also those with the pro-colonial Socialist government of Guy Mollet ... and with the French anti-war left, as well as British socialists’ wider links with anti-colonial and post-colonial African states and bodies.

• Preface by Martin EvansAcknowledgmentsList of acronymsList of illustrationsA note on aims, sources and termsIntroductionChapter 1. Putting Algeria on the anticolonial map: North Africa and the politics of empire in post-war Britain Chapter 2. Algeria in anticolonial and pro-peace networks in Britain: self-determination, world security and early appraisals of Algerian nationalist movementsChapter 3. Searching for socialism under Guy Mollet: French socialists, Algerian nationalists and a divided British left Chapter 4. A world of military force? France, Algeria and Labour’s internationalist policies at the time of SuezChapter 5. Labour and Algeria’s first unofficial diplomats in Britain: testing anticolonial ideas, practices and networks Chapter 6. ‘No longer domestic’: Labour activism and the British debate for rights, peace and justice in Algeria Chapter 7. Democracy under threat? The British left and the Algerian birth of the Fifth RepublicChapter 8. Meeting the FLN in Africa: new international forces, new Labour perspectives? Chapter 9. Beyond the politics of war? H-bomb protests, refugee relief and the limits of anticolonialism in British societyChapter 10. Algeria in the year of Africa: winds of change for the British left? Chapter 11. Individual freedoms and collective security: reassessing violence and diplomacy at the end of empire Chapter 12. Independence at long last: a victory for socialism? Chapter 13. After Algeria’s independence: perspectives and limits of a Labour government in waitingConclusionSourcesIndex