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- Title
"The Idea of the Nation Was Superior to Race": Transforming Racial Contours and Social Attitudes and Decolonizing the French Empire from La Réunion, 1946-1973.
- Authors
Finch-Boyer, Héloïse
- Abstract
Scholars assume the loss of Algeria in 1962 marked the end of French colonialism and a hardening of racialized categories of difference in France, overlooking how race and class categories became more porous in the overseas departments (départements d'outre-mer, or DOMs) after a new, welfare-led, French colonialism was initiated by Prime Minister Michel Debré (elected deputy of La Réunion in 1963). Comparing the provision of social welfare in the DOMs before and after 1962 demonstrates that Debré's new health insurance, family allocations, and housing laws offered DOM populations improved social mobility beyond colonial-era racial boundaries. Welfare encouraged Réunion Islanders to support political attachment to France and undermined support for DOM autonomy movements. Combining scholarship on decolonization, French welfare, and the social history of La Réunion, the article reevaluates the place of French overseas departments in decolonization history, in studies of French racial categories, and in modern France.
- Subjects
FRENCH overseas departments; HISTORY of Reunion; DEBRE, Michel, 1912-1996; POLITICAL stability; PUBLIC welfare; NATIONALISM; DECOLONIZATION; HISTORY of French colonies; RACE relations in France; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2013, Vol 36, Issue 1, p109
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-1816500