Algeria — A Narrative History of Post-Colonial Leaders (1962–2026)

The Mecca of Revolution.

"The Algerian people are a free people; and they are resolved to remain so," says the preamble of the constitution that opens this book. Algeria won that freedom by a war of nearly eight years, from 1 November 1954 to the spring of 1962. On 1 July 1962, 99.72 % of its voters chose independence; France recognised it on 3 July, and Algeria proclaimed it on 5 July, the 132nd anniversary of the fall of Algiers. What followed was sixty-four years in Africa's largest country: a single party born of the liberation front; a colonel who nationalised the oil and spoke for the Third World at the United Nations; an opening after the riots of October 1988 that brought dozens of parties and a free press; an election stopped in January 1992 and a decade of violence whose dead are counted in the tens of thousands; a civil concord that brought fighters down from the mountains; and, in 2019, millions of Algerians marching every Friday, peacefully, until a president who had ruled for twenty years resigned. The constitution of 2020 wrote the date of their movement into its preamble.

Algeria: A Narrative History of Post-Colonial Leaders tells that story as a story — chronological, human and sourced. Six acts, named as the book names them: The Mecca of Revolution, Masters in Their Own House, The Opening, The Black Decade, Concord and the Long Reign, and The New Algeria — to 28 July 2026, when the National People's Assembly elected on 2 July chose Khalida Boufedech as its first woman president.

Inside:

• The deep past — the rock paintings of the Tassili n'Ajjer, Massinissa's Numidia, Augustine of Hippo, the Regency of Algiers, the Emir Abdelkader, Sétif in 1945, and the war of independence to the Évian Accords of 1962
• The national emblem — the green and white flag with the red crescent and star; the motto "By the people and for the people"; and "Kassaman", the anthem Moufdi Zakaria wrote in a cell of Barberousse prison in 1955
• Six illustrated acts — Ben Bella and Algiers as a capital of the liberation movements, to the coup of 19 June 1965; Boumediene's three revolutions, the nationalisation of oil and gas of 24 February 1971 and the Western Sahara question; Chadli Bendjedid's opening, the Berber Spring, the Family Code and the multiparty constitution of 1989; the assassination of Mohamed Boudiaf at Annaba, Zéroual's clemency and the two-term limit of 1996; Bouteflika's civil concord and Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, the Black Spring of Kabylia, In Amenas and the Hirak of 2019; Tebboune's elections of 2019 and 2024, the Gara Djebilet railway and the visit of Pope Leo XIV
• The country beneath the presidents — oil and gas, the French nuclear tests at Reggane and In Ekker, the women of Algeria, the Amazigh question, raï, and the Fennecs
• Quotes from Algeria's leaders and its constitution, and 48 key-fact cards
• A chronology, a table of Algeria's leaders, 72 source notes and a reader's guide of 118 entries
• Lessons in Leadership — what the country's best and worst moments teach those who lead, and an epilogue on the latest official data to September 2026
• The recurring patterns — the army decides, the oil pendulum, violence answered by clemency, and the early exit, rare and remembered

A clear, sourced introduction for anyone who wants to understand Algeria and North Africa — a country that, in the book's words, has tried many answers to the question of who should rule.

What you get: the book in PDF and EPUB in one ZIP file, DRM-free, instant download. Future updates are included with your purchase.