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

Len's Summary: Paperback version of an excellent social-military-political history first published by Johns Hopkins in 2008. How French egalitarianism was challenged by the conscription of more than half a million colonial troops during WWI, a “blood tax” levied on her African and Asian subjects. // An excellent scholarly analysis of colonial troops at war; a study of contradictory and paradoxical French policies on race, culture and religion in wartime drawing on individual experiences among the half million African, Arab and Asian soldiers who served France in WWI. Winner of the Phi Alpha Theta First Book Prize. The author teaches at SUNY Albany.