(From Back Cover)
"Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace, has been an under-ground bestseller among U.S. military officers over the last three years__Indeed, 'Algeria' has become almost a codeword among U.S. counterinsurgency specialists—a shorthand for the depth and complexity of the mess we face in Iraq__Anyone interested in Iraq should read this book immediately."
The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle 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 repressive torture. Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought war ended in Algeria's independence, and yet its repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but throughout the world. From today's vantage point the Algerian War looks like a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans and that now ravages the Middle East—struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.
A Savage War of Peace is the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that brings that terrible and complicated struggle to life with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is essential reading for our own violent times as well as a lasting monument to the historian's art.
"[This] universally acclaimed history...should have been mandatory reading for the civilian and military leaders who opted to invade Iraq."
-Washington Times