Reviews 245

In sum, Moosa has produced a well-ordered listing of useful information and interesting
conjectures which, however, should be used with some care.

Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine ANDREW J. NEWMAN

University of Oxford

MAHFOUD BENNOUNE, The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987 (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1988). Pp. 323.

Unlike so many treatises devoted to Algeria, this book is short on rhetoric and long on
practical examples. It is, in brief, a case study unlike any other in the field.
Bennoune is an anthropologist and socioeconomic historian, but also, it must be
recalled, a member of the National Liberation Front, Algeria's single ruling party.
Accordingly, the author's aim is not only to retrace the history of his country but also to
communicate the thoughts and feelings of a member of the FLN. Readers should bear
this in mind and be wary lest they be seduced by Bennoune's infectious enthusiasm for
Algerian society, which he describes as "the most democratic in the Islamic world."
In his introduction, Bennoune carefully indicates the guiding principle underlying his
version of the making of contemporary Algeria, indicating his preference for a diachronic
analysis which he says will show that "men make their own history . . . under circum-
stances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past." Nevertheless, this is
too narrow a focus and the discussion sometimes slips into glaring oversimplification.
Readers are left with a crude explanatory formulation, with the important role of
Algerian leaders and the changing character of Algeria as a developing country addressed
only very briefly.
The rest of the book is more satisfactory. It is also effectively organized. The volume is
subdivided according to topics, enabling one to locate an area of interest quickly and
without difficulty. In an excellent opening chapter, Bennoune presents an overview of
Algerian society and economy before 1830. The sections of this chapter all provide useful
information and analysis, and we are clearly shown that by the end of the 18th century,
"French merchants appear to have begun to monopolize the entire North African trade."
The second part of the book is a lucid portrayal of French colonialism. Bennoune
successfully highlights what he calls "the uneven development generated by colonialism,"
which was mainly responsible for "the expropriation of land from the rural population"
and for "the decline of... education." At the same time, Bennoune's claim that French
colonialism served the interests of French capitalism is not very convincing. Indeed, the
essential feature of French colonial policy was its very lack of coherence. Colonialism
must thus be understood in terms of power politics.
Overall, the third part is generally of high caliber. Bennoune's account of Algeria's
post-independence development and of the links between society, economy, and the state
is for the most part illuminating and penetrating. Nevertheless, this part of the analysis
also has some limitations. The account of education in independent Algeria is not very
satisfying, for example. It is chronological rather than historical, descriptive rather than
analytical. All of the necessary information is presented, but the account reads like a
balance sheet. Further, it fails to provide an analysis of the politics of education,
including the relations between university heads and government ministers and, more
generally, of the ways that state policies and bureaucratic hierarchies have affected (or
distorted) educational practice. For a study that purports to show the making of con-
temporary Algeria, this oversight is surprising.
There are also some problems with the contrast drawn between the regimes of
Boumediene and Benjadid. As Bennoune states in his conclusion, the FLN "failed to
246 Reviews

generate . . . a coherent elite," and it also proved to be full of frustration and low in
achievement. By contrast, Bennoune is optimistic about the new economic policy of the
Benjadid period, noting that all the talk is now about social harmony, social justice, and
economic modernization. However, although it is true that Boumedienism was an ex-
treme form of state-controlled nationalism, which was discredited mainly by the catas-
trophe of the agrarian revolution, during Benjadid's era we see the growth of corruption
and the emergence of a class of get-rich-quick arrivistes. Further, Benjadid's political
regime is more authoritarian than democratic, although it must be added that democratic
elements have become more prominent since October 1988 and will eventually dominate.
These are only minor criticisms, however. Bennoune's book is without doubt one of the
best studies of Algeria. His broad scope and clear style, supplemented by useful tables and
notes, make his book a stimulating and valuable resource.

Institute of Foreign Languages AHMED LARABA

University of Constantine

ASSASSI LASSASSI, Non-Alignment and Algerian Foreign Policy (Aldershot, England:

Avebury, 1988). Pp. 249.

The concept of nonalignment provides a fruitful perspective from which to examine

Algerian diplomacy. Algeria has been one of the most active member-states of the
Nonaligned Movement, especially during the 1970s when the developing states collectively
used that organization to bid for significant reforms in the international system. Lassassi
provides a well-informed account of Algeria's leadership during that period. The book is
well researched, drawing upon some unpublished dissertations as well as a host of
published sources up through the early 1980s.
The thesis of the book is not clear. A possible one might be that the concept (or
"ideology" as Lassassi prefers) of nonalignment has guided Algerian foreign policy, since
at times this seems to be what Lassassi wishes to demonstrate. Yet an equally enticing
hypothesis would be that Algeria has defined its national interest to include utilization of
the concept of nonalignment as a policy tool and of the movement as an organizational
instrument. This latter, more instrumental, interpretation creeps into Lassassi's analysis,
but he does not explicitly endorse it. This vagueness about the nature of the relationship
between the two variables (nonalignment and Algerian policy) is inherent in Lassassi's
definition of his purposes. He states that he will "make a comparison" between the
ideology and Algerian behavior and assess whether the two variables "converge" (p. xii).
In light of Algeria's prominent role, few readers will be surprised to find similarities or
convergence; the more interesting analytic question is never clearly answered.
Lassassi advances another broad hypothesis, namely that power politics does not
explain the emergence of the nonaligned group or the constituent members' behavior.
Instead, he argues, one must look to "ideology and concerned interest" (p. xii) as
explanatory variables. By "concerned interest," Lassassi explains that he means "the
interest of all community [sic] at large" (p. 18), i.e., that of a global community that
transcends the individual state and even the nonaligned group as a whole. It is because he
wishes to demonstrate the significance of ideology in international politics that Lassassi
devotes Part I of his study to "Non-Alignment as an Ideological Framework." This
section does not really succeed in undermining power-politics assumptions about why
states behave as they do; and thereafter the concept of concerned interest drops out of the
analysis.