Description: During more than a century of colonial rule over Algeria, the French state shaped and reshaped the meaning and practice of Muslim law by regulating it and circumscribing it to the domain of family law, while applying the French Civil Code to appropriate the property of Algerians. In Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830-1930, Judith...
Brief description: Judith Surkis is a Member of the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Review Quotes:
Surkis combines her careful combing of case files with an equally painstaking review of legal texts, press reports and novels... This approach not only makes the work immensely readable, but also ensures its significant contribution across a number of fields, including histories of gender, law, empire, and emotions.
-- "The Journal of North African Studies"