Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-257) and index.
Contents:
Settling the colony, 1830-1914 -- A new Algeria rising : colonial development, 1914-1958 -- Decolonization and the Constantine Plan, 1958-1962 -- Fellahs into peasants : agricultural modernization and market society -- Communism in a white burnous : Ben Bella's specifically Algerian socialism, 1962-1965 -- Today's utopia is tomorrow's reality : cooperation and Third Worldism.
Summary:
"In Markets of Civilization Muriam Haleh Davis provides a history of racial capitalism, showing how Islam became a racial category that shaped economic development in colonial and postcolonial Algeria. French officials in Paris and Algiers introduced what Davis terms "a racial regime of religion" that subjected Algerian Muslims to discriminatory political and economic structures. These experts believed that introducing a market economy would modernize society and discourage anticolonial nationalism. Planners, politicians, and economists implemented reforms that sought to transform Algerians into modern economic subjects and drew on racial assumptions despite the formally color-blind policies of the French state. Following independence, convictions about the inherent link between religious beliefs and economic behavior continued to influence development policies. Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella embraced a specifically Algerian socialism founded on Islamic principles, while French technocrats saw Algeria as a testing ground for development projects elsewhere in the global South. Highlighting the entanglements between race and religion, Davis demonstrates that economic orthodoxies helped fashion understandings of national identity on both shores of the Mediterranean during decolonization"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.