In this poignant and deeply personal work, Benjamin Stora traces the history of Algeria by bringing together the broad sweep of history and intimate memory: childhood in Constantine, his family’s exile in 1962, and a lifelong search for a shared understanding of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence. Both witness and historian, he sheds light on the conflicting memories of the pieds-noirs, the Harkis, immigrants, and Algerian Jews, showing how these wounds continue to shape Algerian and French societies today. The tone alternates between autobiographical testimony, rigorous historical investigation, and an appeal for reconciliation through knowledge. The work of an “actor-researcher,” it speaks to both the general public and specialists, inviting readers to understand Algeria through a life story that resonates on both shores of the Mediterranean. By exploring hybrid identities, paths of assimilation, and quests for self-understanding, his account takes on a dimension that is both intimate and universal.
Claude COLOMBINI FRÉMEAUX

Benjamin Stora was born in Constantine, Algeria, in 1950. A historian with a Doctorate of State in History and Sociology, he is Professor Emeritus at university and former President of the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris (2014–2020). In 2021, at the request of the President of the French Republic, he submitted a report on the “memory of colonialism and the Algerian War.” Together with Abdelwahab Meddeb, he edited an encyclopedia, History of Relations Between Jews and Muslims. He has published some forty works on history and sociology, focusing on the history of the contemporary Maghreb and Algeria.

150 PAGES