Mecca of Revolution traces the ideological and methodological evolution of the Algerian Revolution, showing how an anticolonial nationalist struggle culminated in independent Algeria's ambitious agenda to reshape not only its own society, but international society too. In this work, Jeffrey James Byrne first examines the changing politics and international strategies of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) during its war with France, including the embrace of more encompassing visions of "decolonization" that necessitated socio-economic transformation on a global scale along Marxist/Leninist/Fanonist/Maoist/Guevarian lines. After independence, the Algerians played a leading role in Arab-African affairs as well as the far-reaching Third World project that challenged structural inequalities in the international system and the world economy, including initiatives such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77, and the Afro-Asian movement. At the same time, Algiers, nicknamed the "Mecca of Revolution," became a key nexus in an intercontinental transnational network of liberation movements, revolutionaries, and radical groups of various kinds. Drawing on unprecedented access to archival materials from the FLN, the independent Algerian state, and half a dozen other countries, Byrne narrates a postcolonial, or "South-South," international history. He situates dominant paradigms such as the Cold War in the larger context of decolonization and sheds new light on the relationships between the emergent elites of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Mecca of Revolution shows how Third Worldism evolved from a subversive transnational phenomenon into a mode of elite cooperation that reinforced the authority of the post-colonial state. In so doing, the Third World movement played a key role in the construction of the totalizing international order of the late-twentieth century.
Show moreMecca of Revolution traces the ideological and methodological evolution of the Algerian Revolution, showing how an anticolonial nationalist struggle culminated in independent Algeria's ambitious agenda to reshape not only its own society, but international society too. In this work, Jeffrey James Byrne first examines the changing politics and international strategies of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) during its war with France, including the embrace of more encompassing visions of "decolonization" that necessitated socio-economic transformation on a global scale along Marxist/Leninist/Fanonist/Maoist/Guevarian lines. After independence, the Algerians played a leading role in Arab-African affairs as well as the far-reaching Third World project that challenged structural inequalities in the international system and the world economy, including initiatives such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77, and the Afro-Asian movement. At the same time, Algiers, nicknamed the "Mecca of Revolution," became a key nexus in an intercontinental transnational network of liberation movements, revolutionaries, and radical groups of various kinds. Drawing on unprecedented access to archival materials from the FLN, the independent Algerian state, and half a dozen other countries, Byrne narrates a postcolonial, or "South-South," international history. He situates dominant paradigms such as the Cold War in the larger context of decolonization and sheds new light on the relationships between the emergent elites of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Mecca of Revolution shows how Third Worldism evolved from a subversive transnational phenomenon into a mode of elite cooperation that reinforced the authority of the post-colonial state. In so doing, the Third World movement played a key role in the construction of the totalizing international order of the late-twentieth century.
Show moreJeffrey James Byrne is Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia.
[S]tands out in how clearly the author demonstrates both the
vibrancy of post-imperial possibilities and the process by which
this openness to transnational possibilities disappeared into a
single state-centred vision....[O]ffers insights to African, Cold
War and International historians, as well as scholars of
internationalism.
*Elizabeth Banks, Centre for the Study of Internationalism*
Mecca of Revolution should make a lasting impact in fields
including the study of mid-century decolonization movements, Third
World internationalism, and the global Cold War, among others.
*Jeffrey S. Ahlman, African Studies Quarterly*
This is an important book, a substantial contribution to
scholarship both in terms of the archival sources which it brings
to light and the framework of analysis which it sets up to be
applied and tested in other cases.
*Natalya Vince, Reviews in History*
[T]his book offers a fascinating glimpse of how North-South
questions often came into conflict with East-West logics,
foregrounding the multilateral nature of non-alignment. In a field
that has often studied Algeria's policies through the prism of
France, this book is a groundbreaking intervention.
*Muriam Haleh Davis, Journal of Interdisciplinary History*
[This] book offers a fascinating glimpse of how North-South
questions often came into conflict with East-West logics,
foregrounding the multilateral nature of non-alignment. In a field
that has often studied Algeria's policies through the prism of
France, this book is a groundbreaking intervention.
*Muriam Haleh Davis, Journal of Interdisciplinary History*
[A]n expansive and excellent history of Third World
internationalism detailing the era from the Bandung Conference of
1955 to the overthrow of President Ahmed Ben Bella ten years
later...It is a welcomed and valuable addition to the histories of
Algeria, France, the Third World, the Cold War, and North-South and
South-South relations. Its breadth is admirable...Professor Byrne's
international archival research is impressive. He not only locates
Algeria at multiple diplomatic 'interstices' bridging countries and
continents (p. 251), but also himself
*a courageous, ambitious endeavor resulting in a considerable,
erudite achievement.Phillip C. Naylor, The International Journal of
African Historical Studies*
Innovative and thought-provoking...This book...will certainly
become a standard in discussions on the global Cold War,
decolonization and Third World politics...An important intervention
in several ongoing debates in international relations and
diplomatic history.
*Moritz Feichtinger, H-Soz-Kult*
A conceptually-refreshing narrative that refocuses attention on the
statist, regional, and global politics of liberation movements and
South-South diplomacy in the mid-twentieth century...Byrne offers a
corrective to the dominant narrative of the Cold War
*Dina Matar, Diplomatic History*
Byrne's study is an important contribution to our understanding of
the realpolitik of lesser sovereign states whose liberation thrust
them into Cold War battlefronts. It gets us closer to a more
analytic view of this world, the ideological battle lines of which
still enshroud our thinking Mecca of Revolution will remain
indispensable reading for anyone wishing to understand Global
South-South relations after colonial liberation.
*American Historical Review*
Recommended.
*CHOICE*
Jeffrey Byrne has written a book that definitively places Algeria
at the center of the Third World Project. His sources are as wide
as his geographical reach, bringing this remarkable experiment in
national liberation to life in an age when distress is the mode of
discourse about the Global South.
*Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South*
Jeffrey Byrne has found a way around the mountainous obstacles to
writing innovatively in the twenty-first century about
twentieth-century decolonization, diplomacy, and the building of
authoritarian states: the lack of archival sources, the mistake of
confusing what officials in Washington (or Paris or London) thought
with reality, and, not least, the myths that have grown up around
one or another 'movement' in the so-called 'Third World' or 'Global
South.' Follow him to Mecca of Revolution.
*Robert Vitalis, author of White World Order, Black Power Politics:
The Birth of American International Relations*
Byrne's elegant work demonstrates that anti-colonial agendas,
ideas, and networks did not disappear when the Great Powers
withdrew troops and lowered flags overseas. He argues that a
cosmopolitan internationalism predated empire's bloody demise and
nurtured Third Worldism. This is among the first studies to view
decolonization from within, below, and across multiple points in
the world.
*Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona*
Algeria occupied a crucial place during a pivotal period in
international history, as revolutionary movements challenged the
last vestiges of European colonialism, independent power centers
emerged in Asia and Europe, and the US and USSR began groping
toward a new relationship to preserve their preeminence. Mecca of
the Revolution helps us rethink all of these relationships. Based
on amazing research, it is a highly original and important work of
scholarship.
*Matthew Connelly, Columbia University*
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