French Colonial Fascism The Extreme Right in Algeria, 1919-1939

Alarmed by a growing Muslim population and a reputedly weak imperial administration, European settlers in Algeria in the early twentieth century increasingly turned to fascism in order to seize power and create an authoritarian regime. This study investigates the extreme-rightist leagues that arose in this context, with particular attention to the rabid xenophobia directed at local Jews and Muslims, who were derisively branded 'indigènes' and cast as anti-colonial and left-wing actors. In their attempts to preserve European hegemony and a subjugated pool of unskilled labor, these groups helped to cement a clear racial hierarchy and definitively shaped Algeria's colonial history.

Samuel Kalman is Associate Professor in the Department of History, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada. He is also the author of The Extreme Right in Interwar France (2008).

1. The Action Française, Jeunesses Patriotes, Unions latines, and the Birth of Latinité (1919-1931) 
2. The Algerian Extreme Right, the Great Depression, and the Birth of Muslim Nationalism: The Croix de Feu and the Front Paysan (1928-1935)
3. An Algérianiste Insurrection: The Rassemblement national d'Action sociale and the Amitiés latines (1936-1938)
4. From Metropolitan Theory to Colonial Practice: The Parti populaire français and the Parti social français in Algeria (1936-1939)