A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962

A new, up-to-the-minute author’s preface to this indispensable history of the Algerian Revolution (as the Algerians call it), or the Algerian War (as the French remember it), makes it clear why those eight bloody years half a century ago still resound today, both in large conflicts in the Middle East and in such seemingly minor episodes as a World Cup head butt. As finely written as T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Horne’s work burrows deep into the war’s rough tactics, personal betrayals, frontal assaults and surprise attacks, using key documents—including the organization chart of the FLN ’s secret cells, pieced together name by name during French Army interrogations—and personal interviews with the conflict’s surviving principals. After seeing Pontecorvo’s film “The Battle of Algiers,” read this book, newly back in print.