Race and War in France

Best First Book Prize, Phi Alpha Theta
During the First World War, the French army sent 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 nonetheless left them on the outside. Employing a socially and culturally integrated approach to the history of warfare, Richard S. Fogarty presents a fresh picture of how the French addressed race relations, religious differences, and French identity itself.
"This is a book about both the promise and the shortcomings of French republican ideals . . . A vivid portrait of the questions raised by the use of colonial troops in the war."--French History
"Fogarty pays particular attention to the experience and opinions of the soldiers themselves. This is, in itself, a significant achievement."--Journal of Modern History
"A well-written, carefully argued study that advances in significant ways our understanding of the important place of empire in the Great War . . . It is a sad but important tale that needed to be told, and Richard Fogarty has told it well."--French Politics, Culture & Society
"This subtle and extraordinarily informative book explores the interaction of republican ideology and race . . . This is an elegant and well-argued study that deserves wide circulation, in the classroom and beyond."--American Historical Review

Richard S. Fogarty is an associate professor of history at the University at Albany, State University of New York.