After over a century of intensive colonial rule and nearly eight years of revolutionary warfare, Algeria emerged in a state of total economic decrepitude and political backwardness. Yet in the two decades following independence in 1962 the country achieved a remarkable degree of political stability and economic growth. This book, first published in 1986, traces the shape of Algeria's revolutionary experience through an analysis of the country's culture, history, economy, politics, and foreign policy.

1. Introduction 1.1. Geographical Features and their Effects 1.2. Population 2. The Imprint of History: Antiquity to 1919 2.1. The Pre-Islamic Era: From Antiquity to the Seventh Century AD 2.2. The Arrival of Islam 2.3. Ottoman Rule and the Regency of Algiers, 1518-1830 2.4. French Conquest and Colonization, 1830-1919 3. The Imprint of History: 1919 to the Present 3.1. Nationalist Awakening, 1919-1954 3.2. The War of National Liberation and Political Independence, 1954-1962 3.3. The Post-Independence Period of Ben Bella, Boumediene, and Benjedid, 1962 to the Present 4. Culture and Society in Transition 4.1. Islam 4.2. State Secularization 4.3. Social Problems 5. The Political Economy of Development 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Theory 5.3. Hydrocarbon Policy 5.4. Development Planning in the 1980s 5.5. Agriculture: the Economy's Achilles' Heel 6. The Dynamics of Political Life 6.1. Political Culture 6.2. Political Structures 6.3. Political Processes 6.4. Political Power 7. Worldview 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Orientation 8. Conclusion