Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison 4968331 210477028 2008-05-06T02:09:10Z Rjwilmsi 203434 accessdate compliance to [[Template:Cite_web#Required_parameters|Template:Cite_web]], Replaced: accessdate=May 1, 2006 → accessdate=2006-05-01 using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] '''Olivier LeCour Grandmaison''' ([[September 19]], [[1960]], [[Paris]]) is a [[France|French]] [[historian]]. He is a professor of [[political science]] at the [[University of Évry Val d'Essonne|Evry-Val d'Essonne University]] and also teach at the ''[[Collège International de Philosophie]]'', and mainly works on [[colonialism]] issues. President of the [[October 17]], [[1961]] Association Against Oblivion (which advocates official recognition of the crimes committed by the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]] during the [[Paris massacre of 1961|1961 Paris massacre]]), he is best known for his book ''Coloniser, Exterminer - Sur la guerre et l'Etat colonial'' (2005). == "Colonize, Exterminate" (2005) == In this book, he shows how techniques and concepts forged during the [[New Imperialism]] period at the end of the 19th century were then used for the [[Holocaust]]. He thus underlines how both [[Alexis de Tocqueville|Tocqueville]] and [[Michelet]] openly talked of "[[extermination]]" about the colonization of [[Western United States]] and the [[Indian removal]] period <ref name="Negationnism"> {{fr icon}} {{Cite news | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Le négationnisme colonial | publisher=[[Le Monde]] | date=February 2, 2005 | url=http://web.archive.org/web/20060228040334/http://www.ldh-toulon.net/article.php3?id_article=491}} </ref>. Hence, he quotes Tocqueville himself, in 1841, about the [[French rule in Algeria|French conquest of Algeria]]: <blockquote> "In France I have often heard people I respect, but do not approve, deplore [the army] burning harvests, emptying granaries and seizing unarmed men, women and children. As I see it, these are unfortunate necessities that any people wishing to make war on the Arabs must accept... I believe the laws of war entitle us to ravage the country and that we must do this, either by destroying crops at harvest time, or all the time by making rapid incursions, known as raids, the aim of which is to carry off men and flocks" <ref> {{en icon}} {{Cite news | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony | publisher=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] | date=June 2001 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}} (quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, ''Travail sur l’Algérie'' in ''Œuvres complètes'', Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de [[la Pléiade]], 1991, pp 704 and 705. </ref> </blockquote> "Whatever the case, continued Tocqueville, we may say in a general manner that all [[Freedom (political)|political freedoms]] must be suspended in Algeria" <ref> {{fr icon}} {{Cite web | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Tocqueville et la conquête de l'Algérie | date=2001 | publisher=La Mazarine | url=http://perso.wanadoo.fr/felina/doc/alg/olcg.htm}} </ref> According to LeCour Grandmaison, "De Tocqueville thought the conquest of Algeria was important for two reasons: first, his understanding of the international situation and France’s position in the world, and, second, changes in French society." <ref name="Monde diplomatique"> {{en icon}} {{Cite news | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony | publisher=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] | date=June 2001 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}} </ref> Tocqueville, who despised the [[July monarchy]] (1830-1848), believed that war and colonization would "restore national pride, threatened, he believed, by "the gradual softening of social mores" in the middle classes. Their taste for "material pleasures" was spreading to the whole of society, giving it "an example of weakness and egotism"." Applauding the methods of [[Thomas Robert Bugeaud]], Tocqueville went as far as saying that "war in Africa" had became a "science": <blockquote>"war in Africa is a science. Everyone is familiar with its rules and everyone can apply those rules with almost complete certainty of success. One of the greatest services that Field Marshal Bugeaud has rendered his country is to have spread, perfected and made everyone aware of this new science" <ref name="Monde diplomatique"/>. </blockquote>Thus, LeCour Grandmaison shows that the techniques employed during the [[Algerian War of Independence]] (1954-62) by the French army were rooted in past history. According to LeCour Grandmaison, history of [[war]]fare is not limited to the history of technical progress of weapons, but should englobe the "juridical, administrative and conceptual arsenal" which accompanies it: "We can only understand the extreme violences of the [[Revolutions of 1848 in France|1848 civil war]] - most of the times qualified as "bloody repression" - if we replace them in a longer genealogy, by the way exterior, and brought back to what was experimented before, most notably during the Algerian war [that is, the invasion of Algeria starting in 1830]" <ref> {{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=L’art militaire dans tous ses états | date=January 18, 2006 | publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-01-18/2006-01-18-822136}} </ref> In the same interview, LeCour Grandmaison, basing himself on texts from [[Emile Zola|Zola]], [[Victor Hugo]], [[Lamartine]], but also [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[André Gide]], [[Albert Londres]], [[Jules Verne]], [[Guy de Maupassant|Maupassant]], [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Roland Barthes|Barthes]], [[Joseph Conrad]], etc., distinguish criticisms of the abuses of colonialism and criticisms of the principle itself of colonization. He goes as far as showing how even [[Marx]] and [[Engels]] were not immune to this [[racialism|racialist ideology]] of the 19th century, as these authors also considered the colonization as inevitable and qualified, as did all their contemporaries, non-European people as "[[primitive]]s" and "[[barbarian]]s". It wasn't until the [[Third International]] that the [[socialist]] movement really opposed itself to colonialism and supported [[national liberation]] movements <ref> {{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=Les guerres et l’État colonial français | date=December 28, 2004 | publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2004-12-28/2004-12-28-453736}} </ref>. == State racism == After Michel Foucault, LeCour Grandmaison has spoken of a "[[state racism]]" under the [[French Third Republic]], notable for example with the 1881 Indigenous Code applied in Algeria. Answering to the question "Isn't it excessive to talk about a "state racism" under the Third Republic?", he answered: <blockquote> "No, if we can recognize "state racism" as the vote and implementation of discriminatory measures, grounded on a combination of racial, religious and cultural criteria, in those territories. The 1881 Indigenous Code is a monument of this genre [''monument du genre''] ! Considered by contemporary prestigious jurists as a "juridical monstruosity", this code planned special offenses and penalties for "Arabs". It was then extended to other territories of the [[French colonial empires|empire]]. On one hand, a state of [[rule of law]] for a minority of French and Europeans located in the colonies. On the other hand, a permanent [[state of exception]] for the "[[indigenous peoples of Africa|indigenous]]" people. This situation lasted until 1945." <ref name="Negationnism"/> </blockquote> == February 23, 2005 law == Thus, it comes as no wonder that Olivier LeCour Grandmaison was part of the historians who harshly criticized the [[French law on colonialism|February 23, 2005 law]] voted by the [[Union for a Popular Movement]] (UMP), which demanded to teachers to teach the "positive values" of the French presence abroad, "in particular in North Africa". The law was not only accused of interfering with the autonomy of the University toward the state, but also of being an obvious case of [[historical revisionism (negationism)|historical revisionism]] <ref> {{fr icon}} {{Cite news | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Le colonialisme a la peau dure | publisher=[[Libération]] | date=March 30, 2005 | accessdate=2006-05-01 | url=http://multitudes.samizdat.net/article.php3?id_article=1951}} </ref>. Confronted with intense criticisms, both from historians and the French left-wing and from abroad (e.g. president of Algeria [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]] and ''[[Négritude]]'' writer [[Aimé Césaire]]), president [[Jacques Chirac]] finally had the controversial law repealed in 2006. == References == <references/> == Bibliography == *{{fr icon}} (with C. Wihtol de Wenden), ''Les Citoyennetés en Révolution (1789-1794)'', [[PUF]], 1992 (thesis - preface of [[Madeleine Rebérioux]]) *{{fr icon}} ''Les étrangers dans la cité. Expériences européennes'', Paris, [[La Découverte]], 1993 *{{fr icon}} ''Le 17 octobre 1961 - Un crime d’État à Paris'', collectif, Éditions La Dispute, 2001. *{{fr icon}} ''Haine(s) - Philosophie et Politique'', PUF, 2002 (preface by [[Etienne Balibar]]) ([http://asterion.revues.org/document24.html article on this book]) *{{fr icon}} ''Coloniser, Exterminer - Sur la guerre et l'Etat colonial'', [[Fayard]], 2005, ISBN 2213623163 ([http://www.ldh-toulon.net/article.php3?id_article=508#table Table of contents]) == Some articles == *{{en icon}} {{Cite news | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony | publisher=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] | date=June 2001 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}} *{{en icon}} {{Cite news | author=Cohen, William B. 1941 | title=The Algerian War and the Revision of France's Overseas Mission | publisher=[[Muse Project]] | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/french_colonial_history/v004/4.1cohen.html}} *{{fr icon}} {{Cite web | author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | title=De Tocqueville aux massacres d'Algériens en octobre 1961 | url=http://17octobre1961.free.fr/pages/dossiers/oLecourGm.htm}} * {{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=17 Octobre 1961, Olivier La Cour-Grandmaison : le silence n’est plus de mise | date=October 17, 2001 | publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2001-10-17/2001-10-17-251993}} *{{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=Méthodes de guerre (Coloniser, Exterminer) | date=February 12, 2005 | publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2005-02-12/2005-02-12-456653}} *{{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=Le Cour Grandmaison, Haine et politique | date=March 10, 2003 | publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2003-03-10/2003-03-10-317800}} *{{fr icon}} {{Cite news | title=Entretien avec Olivier LeCour Grandmaison | date=March 19, 2005 | publisher=[[El Watan]] | url=http://icietlabas.lautre.net/article.php3?id_article=121}} == See also == *[[Colonialism]] *[[French rule in Algeria]] *[[Paris massacre of 1961]] *[[Sven Lindqvist]], a Swedish author who also demonstrated links between [[colonialism]] and the [[Holocaust]] {{DEFAULTSORT:LeCour Grandmaison, Olivier}} [[Category:French historians]] [[Category:Historians of colonialism]] [[fr:Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison]]