A compelling account of one of the great dramas of the postwar era: the struggle over the destiny of Algeria, a struggle in which terror bred torture, and France itself was torn into warring factions. The war shook French life as Vietnam was to shake American life. Talbott explicates the many facets of the struggle, and his incisive mind, intellectual judiciousness, and taut prose make this a model study, an important contribution to our understanding of our own recent past.