A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930

by Alice Conklin and Alice L. Conklin

Book Overview

This book addresses a central but often ignored question in the history of modern France and modern colonialism: How did the Third Republic, highly regarded for its professed democratic values, allow itself to be seduced by the insidious and persistent appeal of a "civilizing" ideology with distinct racist overtones? By focusing on a particular group of colonial officials in a specific setting--the governors general of French West Africa from 1895...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804740127
• ISBN13: 9780804740128
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"