Debates about the legacy of colonialism in France are not new, but they have taken on new urgency in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. Responding to acts of religious and racial violence in 2005, 2010, and 2015 and beyond, the essays in this volume pit French ideals against government-sponsored revisionist decrees that have exacerbated tensions, complicated the process of establishing and recording national memory, and triggered divisive debates on what it means to identify as French. As they document the checkered legacy of French colonialism, the contributors raise questions about France and the contemporary role of Islam, the banlieues, immigration, race, history, pedagogy, and the future of the Republic. This innovative volume reconsiders the cultural, economic, political, and social realities facing global French citizens today and includes contributions by Achille Mbembe, Benjamin Stora, Françoise Vergès, Alec Hargreaves, Elsa Dorlin, and Alain Mabanckou, among others.

Nicolas Bancel is Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and codirector of the ACHAC Research Group.

Pascal Blanchard is a historian and researcher at the Laboratoire Communication et Politique (Paris, France, CNRS), codirector of the ACHAC Research Group, and a documentary filmmaker.

Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor and Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA.

Alexis Pernsteiner is a freelance editor and translator: www.pernsteinertranslations.com. Her translations include Colonial Culture in France since the Revolution (IUP).

Introduction: A Decade of Postcolonial Crisis: Fracture, Rupture and Apartheid (2005-2015) / Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, and Dominic Thomas

Part I. Colonial Fracture / 2005

1.1 The Emergence of the Colonial

1. The Republican Origins of the Colonial Fracture / Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard2. When a (War) Memory Hides another (Colonial) / Benjamin Stora3. A Difficult History: A Brief History of the Colonial and the Postcolonial Situation / Nicolas Bancel4. Reducing the Republic's Native to the Body / Nacira Guénif-Souilamas5. Colonization and Immigration: "Blind Spots" in the History Classroom / Sandrine Lemaire6. Memory Wars: A Study of the Intersection between History and Media / Pascal Blanchard and Isabelle Veyrat-Masson

1.2 The Return of the Colonial

7. The Enemy Within: The Construction of the "Arab" in the Media / Thomas Deltombe and Mathieu Rigouste8. Islam and the Republic: A Long, Uneasy History / Anna Bozzo9. The Republic, Colonization. And Beyond / Michel Wieviorka10. Colonial Natives and Indigents: from the Colonial "Civilizing Mission" to Humanitarian Action / Rony Brauman11. The Banlieues as a Colonial Theater, or the Colonial Fracture in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods / Didier Lapeyronnie12. The Pitfalls of Colonial Memory / Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard13. Overseas France: A Vestige of the Republican Colonial Utopia? / Françoise Vergès

Part II. Postcolonial Ruptures / 2010

2.1 Debating the Colonial Legacy

14. Rethinking Politics in the French Overseas Departments / Jacky Dahomay15. "Race," Ethnicization, and Discrimination: Is History Repeating Itself or Is this a Postcolonial Peculiarity? / Patrick Simon16. From the Empire to the Republic: "French Islam" / Valérie Amiraux17. Immigration: From Métèques to Foreigners / Yvan Gastaut18. Inequality Between Humans: From "Race Wars" to "Cultural Hierarchy / Pascal Blanchard

2.2 Postcolonial and Critical Gazes

19. The Postcolonial Challenges of Teaching History: Between History and Memory / Benoît Falaize20. Postcolonial Studies in French Academia / Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch21. From Slavery to the Postcolonial / Patrick Weil22. The Great Strip Show: Feminism, Nationalism, and the Burqa in France / Elsa Dorlin23. From the Red Peril to the Green Peril: The New Enemy Within / Renaud Dély

Part III. Apartheid and the War of Identities in France / 2015

3.1 The end of the "French model"?

24. From the Dakar Speech to the Taubira Affair / Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia 25. Could Islamophobia be the Start of a New Identy-Based Bond in France? / Rachid Benzine26. The Black Question and the Exhibit B Controversy / Alain Mabanckou and Dominic Thomas 27. Cultural Orientalization or Political Occidentalism? / Nicolas Lebourg 28. Faces of the National Front (1972-2015) / Sylvain Crépon29. Infiltration of Liquid Populism / Raphaël Liogier 

3.2 Rejet de l'autre, radicalisation identitaire, impensé colonial

30. Nanoracism and the Force of Emptiness / Achille Mbembe31. Antiracism: A Failed Fight or the End of an Era ? / Emmanuel Debono32. Closing Borders Against Fear: Europe's Response to the 2015 "Migration Crisis" / Claire Rodier33. Toward a Real History of French Colonialism / Alain Ruscio34. Is a Colonial History Museum Politically Impossible? / Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard 35. After Charlie: A New Era or Unfinished Business?/ Alec Hargreaves

BibliographyIndex