History's Place is a distinguished, erudite, and convincing study of the crucial role of culture and literature in the articulation of the French-Algerian colonial relationship. Supported by outstanding research and innovative archival work, this book provides a compelling analysis of the ways by which three intellectual communities-Metropolitan French, Algerian French, and Arab/Imazighen-have continuously produced fictions of "Algeria" to support their claims to national identity and difference. Moving from the roman colonial to more recent postcolonial narratives, History's Place forces us to rethink our conceptions of French Algerian literature by insisting on trans-Mediterranean continuities rather than ruptures. As such, it is a wonderful tribute to the vitality and complexity of Francophone intellectual life since the nineteenth century.
