Modern Algeria

Download or read book Modern Algeria written by John Douglas Ruedy and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the largest countries in Africa and in the Arab world, Algeria in the last half of the twentieth century has stood as a compelling model of national liberation and development. Yet, as the century nears a close, Algeria is beset by a national crisis, its economy in virtual collapse, its single-party political system discredited, and its cultural identity challenged by emergent Islamic fundamentalism. John Ruedy provides the first up-to-date history of Algeria's evolution from a segmented tribal order under the Ottoman Empire through five generations of French colonial exploitation, to an eight-year war of liberation, and finally to independent statehood. A concluding chapter surveys the developing political and economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, which witnessed Algeria at a crossroads between the Islamists and military rule. -- Back cover.