“In this strikingly original work, Gary Wilder combines archival research, political theory, and literary analysis to issue a decisive challenge to reigning approaches to the study of French history. The result is a book remarkable both for its far-reaching theoretical implications in colonial studies and for the humane way it illuminates the dilemmas and engagements of a fascinating generation of thinkers.”--Laurent Dubois, Michigan State University

“Wilder accomplishes what is rare enough in the new imperial history: he deftly illustrates both the constitutive impact of colonial modernity on metropolitan forms and the centrality of people of African descent to the story of European political and cultural development. His emphasis on the disjointed character of the imperial nation-state is as provocative as it is original, making this book a must-read for students of national, colonial, and postcolonial histories."--Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Gary Wilder’s historical anthropology of the French imperial nation-state is the work of a truly gifted scholar. It evinces quite an extraordinary mix of imagination, critical acuity, theoretical subtlety, and empirical depth. It is, in short, a fine history and an exceptional anthropology that is highly relevant to our understanding of both European nation-states and the U.S. imperium at the dawn of the twenty-first century.”--John Comaroff, University of Chicago

“This highly original book is a major intervention on the scholarship of empire, race, colonialism, nationhood, and modernity. Meticulous in its detail, provocative, and imaginative in its interpretations, it identifies the key issues of administration, government, and citizenship to illuminate the cross-cutting currents that shaped both France and her African colonial empire.”