The French Imperial Nation-State
Author | : Gary Wilder |
Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
Total Pages | : 417 |
Release | : 2005-12 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780226897684 |
ISBN-13 | : 0226897680 |
Rating | : 4/5 (84 Downloads) |
Download or read book The French Imperial Nation-State written by Gary Wilder and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France experienced a period of crisis following World War I when the relationship between the nation and its colonies became a subject of public debate. The French Imperial Nation-State focuses on two intersecting movements that redefined imperial politics—colonial humanism led by administrative reformers in West Africa and the Paris-based Negritude project, comprising African and Caribbean elites. Gary Wilder develops a sophisticated account of the contradictory character of colonial government and examines the cultural nationalism of Negritude as a multifaceted movement rooted in an alternative black public sphere. He argues that interwar France must be understood as an imperial nation-state—an integrated sociopolitical system that linked a parliamentary republic to an administrative empire. An interdisciplinary study of colonial modernity combining French history, colonial studies, and social theory, The French Imperial Nation-State will compel readers to revise conventional assumptions about the distinctions between republicanism and racism, metropolitan and colonial societies, and national and transnational processes.