Asseraf - Electric News in Colonial Algeria (Oxford Historical Monographs)

This section is the most important, because this book would not have been possible without the material and emotional support of many people and institutions.

James McDougall taught me to think of colonial Algeria as a real place where people lived, dreamed, and died. Most of all, first as supervisor, then as editor, he gave me the freedom to keep on doing what I found most interesting. This work was supported by a doctoral research grant from the AHRC and St Cross College, and then a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. At All Souls, conversations with Liz Chatterjee, Arthur Downing, Celia Heyes, Alexander Morrison, Judith Scheele, Claudio Sopranzetti, George Woudhuysen, and many others fed into this project extensively. Stephen Smith generously gave his time as a mentor. The final stages of revising this into a manuscript were made possible by a position at the University of Cambridge and the support of Trinity College. In Cambridge, I benefited tremendously from discussions with Andrew Arsan, Helen Pfeifer, Khaled Fahmy, Julia Guarneri, Amira Bennison, and Jos Ciro Martnez.

Tracing news involves a fair bit of travelling. In Algeria, Bob Parks and Karim Ouaras at CEMA made my research in Algeria possible, along with the staff at the ANA in Birkhadem and the archives of the wilayat of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine. In Algiers, I owe so much to Kaltoum Meidane who took time off to show me everything I needed to know. Thanks to Rym Terbeche and Lalia Behidj, I was given a warm welcome at the headquarters of Radio algrienne and the Muse de la radio algrienne. Coffees around town with Hakim Addad, and conversations with Pre Teissier, Guillaume Michel, and other residents of the Glycines taught me far more than the archives. In Oran, the Centre Pierre Claverie gave me a place to stay and audiences at CRASC pushed my research by asking great questions. In Constantine, Ouarda Siari Tengour showed me around and Johanna Wagman was a great travel companion. Idir Igoudjil, Pierre-Antoine Picand, and Chlo Domat put up with me when I diverted a road-trip to have a look at Baghlia, ex-Rbeval. In Tunis, Kmar Bendana and the IRMC pointed me in the right direction, and the staff at the ANT made it a smooth archival experience.

In Paris, I am thankful to the staff of the BNF, the Archives diplomatiques at La Courneuve, the BULAC, and the SHD in Vincennes. In Marseille, Paula Hnin and Marcel Roncayolos family generously gave me a home which was a piece of historical research in itself. In Aix-en-Provence, I benefited from the support of Nol Coulet and the Association Paul-Albert Fvrier. Hassan Moukhlisse at the MMSH and the staff at the CDHA guided me through their collections. More than any other, the ANOM were a delight to work in, thanks to Isabelle Chiavassa and all the staff there. The Hermann-Boutys, Sarah Zimmermann, Diana Kim, and Arad Gigi provided welcome escapes from the archive.

At various points in the research, many scholars gave feedback and fielded queries: Noureddine Amara, Hlne Blais, Emmanuel Blanchard, Hannah-Louise Clark, Morgan Coriou, John Darwin, Claire Fredj, John-Paul Ghobrial, Abigail Greene, Jim House, Idriss Jebari, Augustin Jomier, Annick Lacroix, Alex Middleton, Hadj Miliani, Hussein Omar, Mhamed Oualdi, Susan Pedersen, Terry Peterson, Rebecca Scales, Berny Sbe, Kathryn Schwartz, Miranda Spieler, Glenda Sluga, Ann Laura Stoler, Sylvie Thnault, and Heidi Tworek. The late Chris Bayly and Jan-Georg Deutsch are much missed.

Several mentors and teachers deserve special thanks. Carol Gluck always asked the hardest and best questions. Conversations with Jennifer Sessions and with Malika Rahal have shaped this work a great deal. Martin Thomas and Mary Lewis were crucial in helping reshape this from a messy PhD thesis into a hopefully slightly less messy book. Ruth Harris is the model of the kind of historian I would like to become: intellectually creative and, more than anything, a generous and warm person. Ouijdane Absi initiated me in the pleasures and difficulties of the Arabic language. It is thanks to a string of patient teachers from her to Ammar al-Samar that I have been able to conduct an important part of this research, though they would all probably be dismayed by my many grammatical mistakes and general laziness. All the Arabic translations have benefited hugely from the insights of Yousif Qasmiyeh, first as teacher then as friend.

But most crucial have been the friends who kept me sane, Ozren Jungic, Daniel Lee, Elizabeth Marcus, Fatemeh Shams, and Diego Rubio in Oxford, and Donl Hassett, Michelle Mann, and Chris Silver during bouts of archival fever. Muriam Davis taught me that sometimes a great friend and a great colleague are the same person. Clare Bucknell already knows she is the better twin. Valentina Zagaria, Dagna Rams, and the sisterhood of the Bialowieza forest have proven that communities with no territorial bounds really exist.

A special group of people provided editorial as well as emotional support. Kai Peringer and Anne Irfan kept the nonsense away. Being read by Sally Davies was a privilege. Kevin Brazil saved me from many a crisis. Sara Rahnama has helped me grow more than I ever thought I could. And Julia Nicholls is in many ways the true author, reading everything I wrote at every hour of the day and night.

My aunt Caroline got me thinking about news, and though I did not know this at the time, this project really began many years ago by observing work at a news channel thanks to my cousin Mathieu. My father Alexandre sat at the back of all of my talks, gently falling asleep. My debt to my mother, Martine, is so great that I know whatever I write here will disappoint her. To them both I owe the most.