Description:
Peasant weakness in the Algerian natio-nalist movement before 1954, Benjamin Stora. Concentrating on the biographies of 260 members of the pre-1954 Algerian nationalist movement's leadership which he put together in his recent Dictionary, the author shows that from 1936 to 1953 only 5,7 % of the leaders originated from the peasantry. Such facts, quite contrary to the lyrical statements of Franz Fanon, for example, posed a serious problem before and after the 1954 insurrection, since for the rebels the revolution was to be offered to a largely rural population. This shortcoming has undoubtedly been at the root of many of Algeria's problems since independence.