Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918

FAIN: FT-52903-04

Richard Standish Fogarty
Bridgewater College (Bridgewater, VA 22812-1599)

This project examines conceptions of race and national identity in France as revealed through attitudes and policies toward colonial subjects who served in the French army in Europe during the First World War. The presence of over 500,000 non-white men from North and West Africa, Indochina, and Madagascar in the French army and on French soil highlighted tensions between republican traditions of egalitarianism and univeralism and racial prejudices. The results of these tensions were paradoxical policies that associated these men closely with the French nation they were defending, yet held them apart because of their racial identity and made their full integration into the French nation difficult, if not impossible.

Media Coverage

Interview-Podcast (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Marshall Poe
Publication: New Books in History
Date: 11/2/2008
Abstract: The thing about empire building is that when you’re done building one, you’ve got to figure out what to do with it. This generally involves the “extraction of resources.” We tend to think of this in terms of things like gold, oil, or rubber. But people can be “extracted” as well. The French empire of the later nineteenth century offers a case in point. Having found themselves in a very nasty war with the Germans, the French decided that it might be useful to enlist their African and Southeast Asian colonials in the fighting. As Richard Fogarty demonstrates in his excellent new book Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), this effort to draft the colonials led to no end of paradoxes. France was the home of Republicanism, and Republicans are supposed to be keen on liberté, égalité, fraternité. But the colonials weren’t at liberty–they were subjects. Neither were they equal–they enjoyed few of the rights of th
URL: http://newbooksinhistory.com/2008/11/02/richard-fogarty-race-and-war-in-france-colonial-subjects-in-the-french-army/

(Review)
Publication: American Historical Review
Date: 4/1/2009
Abstract: 114, no. 2, 493

(Review)
Publication: The Journal of Military History
Date: 4/1/2009
Abstract: 73, no. 2 (April 2009), 668-669

(Review)
Publication: Parameters
Date: 12/21/2011
Abstract: (Summer 2009), 130-131

(Review)
Publication: Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
Date: 12/21/2011
Abstract: 10, no. 2 (Fall 2009)

(Review)
Publication: Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association
Date: 12/21/2011
Abstract: no. 84 (December 2008-January 2009)

(Review)
Publication: H-France Review 11, no. 148 (July 2011).
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: Journal of Interdisciplinary History 41, no. 1, (Summer 2010), 140-141
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: Journal of World History 21, no. 2 (June 2010), 353-356
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews, July, 2010
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: First World War Studies 1, no. 2 (October 2010), 205-207
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: The Journal of Modern History, 82, no. 4. (December 2010), 959-960
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: French Politics, Culture & Society, 28, no. 3 (Winter 2010), 133-136;
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: War in History
Date: 12/21/2011
Abstract: 16, no. 4 (November 2009), 527-529

(Review)
Publication: Canadian Journal of History
Date: 12/21/2011
Abstract: 44, no. 3 (Winter 2010), 539-541

(Review)
Publication: International History Review. 32, no. 1, (2010), 155-156
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: Journal of Intercultural Studies 31, no. 2 (April 2010), 219-221
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: Black and Asian Studies Newsletter 56 (March 2010), 28-30
Date: 12/21/2011

(Review)
Publication: ; French History 24, no. 1 (March 2010), 123-125
Date: 12/21/2011

Associated Products

Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918 (Book)
Title: Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918
Author: Richard S. Fogarty
Abstract: During the First World War, the French army deployed more than 500,000 colonial subjects to European battlefields. The struggle against a common enemy associated these soldiers with the French nation, but racial and cultural differences left them on the outside. This study investigates French conceptions of race and national identity at the time as reflected in the attitudes and policies directed toward these soldiers. How far did French egalitarianism extend in welcoming and disciplining nonwhite troops? Using the experiences of African and Asian colonial soldiers, Richard S. Fogarty examines how tensions between racial prejudices and strong traditions of republican universalism and egalitarianism resulted in often contradictory and paradoxical policies. Employing a socially and culturally integrated approach to the history of warfare that connects military and political policies with the society and culture in which they developed, Fogarty presents a fresh picture of how the French came to deal with race relations, religious differences, and French identity itself.
Year: 2008
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780801888243

Prizes

Best First Book Prize
Date: 9/29/2009
Organization: Phi Alpha Theta

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