"Of Sovereignty": Disputed Archives, "Wholly Modern" Archives, and the Post-Decolonization French and Algerian Republics, 1962-2012.

DECOLONIZATION; FRENCH Algeria; HISTORICAL source material; FRENCH-Algerian War, 1954-1962; PRESERVATION of historic records; ALGERIA-France relations; ADMINISTRATION of French colonies; GOVERNMENT policy

This roundtable essay on decolonization focuses on the availability and access to archival source material related to the French colonization of Algeria. It considers competing narratives of how the history sources for the period of 1830 to 1962 became lost or misplaced through theft or destruction. An outline of the public dispute between France and Algeria regarding sources, including during the period of the Algerian Revolution, is presented.