A Savage War of Peace

Algeria 1954-1962

By Alistair Horne

With a new preface by the Author

The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It caused the fall of six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, brought de Gaulle back to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and state torture.

The conflict made headlines around the world, and at the time it seemed like a French affair. From the perspective of half a century, however, this brutal and intractable conflict looks less like the last colonial war than the first postmodern one—a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s and that now ravages the Middle East, from Beirut to Baghdad, struggles in which religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism assume previously unimagined degrees of intensity.

Originally published in 1977, Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace was immediately proclaimed by experts of varied political sympathies to be the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that not only does justice to its Byzantine intricacies, but that does so with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is not only essential reading for anyone who wishes to investigate this dark stretch of history, but a lasting monument of the historian's art.

Includes 40 photographs

Read an excerpt (PDF)

Reviews

The present conflict in the Middle East is frighteningly similar, making this book a good volume to have.
— Library Journal

[This] universally acclaimed history...should have been mandatory reading for the civilian and military leaders who opted to invade Iraq.
— The Washington Times

Horne's achievement—in a book first published in 1977—was to speak with gruff respect of the might-have-beens without losing his concentration on the blunt and unavoidable facts.
— Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly

[A Savage War of Peace] is compelling reading, filled with intimate detail about characters and situations that have served as inspiration for a dozen novels from The Day of the Jackal on.
— Los Angeles Times

An admirably impartial, lucid and readable book...as full and objective a history of the Algerian war as we are likely to see for some years.
— The New York Times Book Review

An awesome and superlative piece of historical narrative...Mr. Horne has a terrible and tremendous tale to tell, one full of omen for posterity.
— The Times (London)

Alistair Horne is one of the best writers of history in the English speaking world. A Savage War of Peace shows him at the peak of his powers.
— The Financial Times

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