Description: In the wake of independence from French colonialism, a generation of North African nationalist leaders and progressive thinkers reimagined their futures through essays, periodicals, and publishing networks. Leaping Decolonization explores how these debates unfolded from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, when intellectuals across Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia challenged colonial legacies, questioned the meaning of progress, and redefined the role of tradition in their societies. Idriss Jebari constructs a transnational intellectual history grounded in the lived experience of the region's post-colonial transformations. It is organized in a series of 'debates' on the meaning of decolonization, ranging from national culture to social emancipation. This study further sheds light on how radical thought was produced under authoritarianism, seeking to capture the aspirations of youth movements, and how North Africa's decolonization connects with other historical experiences. In doing so, Jebari addresses ongoing questions about the meaning of global history and the voices of intellectual peripheries from the Global South on the world stage.
Brief description: Idriss Jebari is a Lecturer in Middle East Studies at Trinity College Dublin. His research focuses on North African cultural and social history after its independences from France, on the radical sixties and seventies, on collective memory in the Arab world, and contemporary Mediterranean history. His work has appeared in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Critique, and Comparative Studies of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Review Quotes: 'Leaping Pages of Decolonization takes us on a journey through the 'dusty books' and periodicals, an intellectual history of North African decolonization during the 1960s and 1970s. The story is fascinating, sympathetic and sophisticated, it centres on regional time and space but invites us to transcend boundaries of thought and borders. Focusing on the 'publishing infrastructure' makes an invaluable epistemic recovery of a unique extended moment of decolonization.' David Ryan, University College Cork, Ireland