The Discovery of the Third World
Decolonization and the Rise of the New Left in France, c.1950–1976

This book explores the emergence of 'Third Worldism' as a new intellectual movement during the era of decolonization and the Cold War.

Christoph Kalter (Author)

9781107074514, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 2016

516 pages, 9 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16 x 2.7 cm, 0.95 kg

'Kalter's hugely impressive study … essays a variety of disciplinary approaches: conceptual history, political history, intellectual history, exemplary archival and oral history, memory studies, and media studies.' Martin Shipway, The American Historical Review

An innovative account of how the concept of the 'Third World' emerged in France from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1970s alongside a new leftist movement. The book reveals how, in an age of Cold War, decolonization and development thinking, French activists rose to prominence within the political Left, established transnational contacts, and developed a new global consciousness. Using the 'Third World' concept to reinvigorate anticolonial solidarity, they supported the Algerian FLN, the Cuban Revolution, and the liberation movements in Vietnam and Portuguese Africa. Insisting on the postcolonial character of France after the end of empire, they promoted new forms of cooperation with developing countries and immigrant workers. Examining the work of French leftists in publications such as Partisans, parties such as the PSU, and associations like the CEDETIM, Kalter sheds new light on a crucial moment in France's history, the global contexts that prompted it, and its worldwide ramifications.

1. Introduction: from 'discovery' to historiography
2. A new picture of the world: the Third World in the social sciences and politics
3. Conflicts, new diversity, and convergence: the new radical Left in France
4. 'From the Résistance to anti-colonialism': the politics of memory in the new radical Left
5. 'Today we have to learn a lesson from them': the journal Partisans and the opening up to the Third World
6. 'With socialist greetings': the PSU, the CEDETIM, and the praxis of 'international solidarity'
7. Conclusion: eyes on the world
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: The Cold War [HBTW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]