The author has significant knowledge on the subject and works with many sources. The book shows France's efforts in colonial Algeria and the imposition of the French presence through many instruments, but also through the economy and wine production. Despite the dry style of writing and presenting facts, there is a lot of useful information for those interested in colonial Algeria and the French occupation. It is also interesting to understand that after the withdrawal of France, Algerian wine declined due to the loss of the French market, but the Algerians still reached the Soviet market.

The Blood of the Colony -Wine and the Rise and Fall of French Algeria Owen White Harvard University Press

This is a fascinating and sobering account of France’s imperial experience in Algeria. It is written masterfully,by Owen White, Associate Professor History , University of Delaware. White carried out exhaustive research in public and private documents to construct this history and it is clearly the very best book on the subject. I personally learned a lot about Algeria's colonial experience and the special role played by wine. There is much about this book to admire, especially its thoroughness.

White's book covers events from the early violent settlement of Algeria in the mid-to late 19th century through to independence in 1962, He traces how viticulture and wine production took root and became increasingly important to France’s Algerian colony and the economy of the metropole. He also explores how wine remade Algeria into a colonial society of inequality and how it became the target of hostility leading up to independence.

The book explores in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail the challenges which faced the French authorities in making the colonial experience work. It accounts how the relationship between the EuroAlgerians in the colony and the opposing political and economic interests in the metropole became fraught with conflict mainly due to the tremendous growth of wine exports from Algeria to the metropole. These exports competed with the small vignerons in the Aude, Midi and elsewhere who campaigned to limit the flow of Algerian wine to France. In telling this story, White also provides fascinating profiles of the investors who made and lost fortunes in the Algerian wine industry.

White notes that the government of De Gaulle opened the door to Algerian self-determination, an idea that was abhorrent to the EuroAlgerians. Following the approval of a national referendum in 1961 and the Evian Accords of March 1962 , Algeria became independent in July. Amazingly, at independence, Algeria still had the fourth largest wine industry in the world. This section of the book isn't quite as detailed and left me wondering why independence occurred relatively effortlessly and peacefully.

White focuses briefly on the post independence period in Algeria. He examines how the revolutionary government attempted to deal with the legacies of colonialism by gaining control of the economy and developing new export markets for Algerian products He notes that after independence, the wine industry in Algeria steadily deteriorated due to a decline in production and the loss of access to the French market. However, the Algerians were able to sell their wine to the Soviet Union, albeit at low prices and to export their oil in the Sahara discovered in 1956 .They also began to diversify agriculture, substituting cereal crops for vines.

The EuroAlgerians ("repatries" ) who had once dominated the wine industry appear to have done well for themselves after Algerian independence. Known as ("pieds-noir" )they discovered new wine investment opportunities in Bordeaux in the South of France and especially in Corsica where they came to dominate the wine industry by the mid-1960s. White also traces the revival of opposition to the wine industry by Algeria’s Islamic population and the military in the 1990s which proved to be the coup d’ grace of the wine industry in Algeria.

Mike Potashnik
August 2020
McLean, VA

As someone interested in the modern history of Algeria, I approached this book with curiosity, which was partially rewarded.
The book focuses on a rather narrow topic—the wine industry in Algeria during its time as a French colony. The intro holds the promise that this narrow topic will shed great light on France’s colonization of Algeria, and it does to a certain extent, But I was disappointed with the rather dry tone of the book, as well as what I thought was a lack of detail as to the lives lived by both the vineyard owners and the Algerians and others who worked for them..
if you are interested as I am in modern Algerian history, the book will still offer good insight into France’s occupation of the country