Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria

Joshua Cole

Published by Cornell University Press 2019

Lethal Provocation

The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria

Joshua Cole

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501739439

Overview
Contents

About this book

Part murder mystery, part social history of political violence, Lethal Provocation is a forensic examination of the deadliest peacetime episode of anti-Jewish violence in modern French history. Joshua Cole reconstructs the 1934 riots in Constantine, Algeria, in which tensions between Muslims and Jews were aggravated by right-wing extremists, resulting in the deaths of twenty-eight people.

Animating the unrest was Mohamed El Maadi, a soldier in the French army. Later a member of a notorious French nationalist group that threatened insurrection in the late 1930s, El Maadi became an enthusiastic supporter of France's Vichy regime in World War II, and finished his career in the German SS. Cole cracks the "cold case" of El Maadi's participation in the events, revealing both his presence at the scene and his motives in provoking violence at a moment when the French government was debating the rights of Muslims in Algeria. Local police and authorities came to know about the role of provocation in the unrest and killings and purposely hid the truth during the investigation that followed. Cole's sensitive history brings into high relief the cruelty of social relations in the decades before the war for Algerian independence.

Author / Editor information

Joshua Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He teaches nineteenth and twentieth century European history and has published work on gender and the history of the population sciences, colonial violence, and the politics of memory in France, Algeria, and Germany. His book The Power of Large Numbers was selected as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2000 by Choice Magazine. He is also coauthor, with Carol Symes, of Western Civilizations.

Reviews

Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona, author of Mediterraneans:

Majestic. Cole's powerful narrative of the tragic events of 1934 compels historians of empire to rethink categories, approaches, and methodologies. His deep research into, and reflection on, 'French' North Africa sets a new standard for Colonial Studies.

Ethan B. Katz, University of California Berkeley, author of The Burdens of Brotherhood:

Lethal Provocation is a tour de force. Here, at last, is a book worthy of the importance and complexity of the Constantine riots of 1934: a major and long-misunderstood event of modern French, Algerian, and Jewish history. Carefully researched and brilliantly contextualized, it deserves a wide audience.

Benjamin Claude Brower, University of Texas at Austin, author of A Desert Named Peace:

This is a very impressive book. Joshua Cole's research, argumentation, and prose are all exceptional. His achievement should not be understated: Lethal Provocation will stand as the definitive history of a key event in Algeria's colonial era for generations to come.

Meticulously researched and deftly constructed, Cole's work delineates how the riots, long mischaracterized and misunderstood by contemporaries and historians alike, shed new light on the activities of neofascist elements of the French right in Algeria. The author offers not only a fascinating glimpse into the conspiracy and the official coverup, but in reconstructing social relations on the local level, he illuminates the twisted racial logic(s) of the French colonial state.

Cole has done a great service in unpacking all of this, and has managed to do so while producing a gripping history that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Joshua Cole's fascinating and extremely well-researched and well-written Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders adn the Politics of French Algeria is like a strong wind in the sails of the microhistorical method.

Moving seamlessly between a range of historical registers, Cole offers at once a history of religious life under French colonial rule, a portrait of socio-cultural change in a transforming colonial city, an analysis of the intersections of metropolitan and colonial politics in the 1930s, and a granular reconstruction of the events worthy of a great criminologist. Lethal Provocation will remain a classic in French colonial studies for decades to come.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Note on Transliteration Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Map 1. Northern Algeria during the colonial period Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Map 2. The city of Constantine in 1934 Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1: Algerian Histories of Empire
1. Constantine in North African History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. “Native,” “Jewish,” and “European” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
3. The Crucible of Local Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Part 2: Colonial Society in Motion
4. The Postwar Moment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
5. French Algeria’s Dual Fracture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
6. Provocation, Difference, and Public Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
7. Rehearsals for Crisis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Part 3: A Riot in France
8. Friday and Saturday, August 3–4, 1934 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
9. Sunday, August 5, 1934 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
10. Shock and Containment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Part 4: Making the Riot Algerian
11. Empire of Fright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
12. The Police Investigation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
13. The Agitator Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
14. The Trials Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 3
- Images: 10
- Other: 10 b&w halftones, 3 maps
Keywords: Colonialism; Antisemitism; France; Algeria; Constantine; violence; history

eBook

Published: September 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501739439