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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The people in this book occupy an ambiguous position between modernity and postmodernity, between colonial Africa and postcolonial Europe. They have migrated from Malta to North Africa to France, and so much of our time together over the past ten years has been spent returning mentally to these former homes and former times. This is a book about how places endure while people scatter, and the dynamic politics of the past: how here conjures up there, and how now reminds us of then. I gathered many debts as I traveled the globe in search of traces of the pasts we discussed together, in nearly a mirror image of their migratory journey, seeking out consultants and archives across France, Tunisia, Malta, and the U.K. Fieldwork was conducted in France, Malta, Tunisia, and the U.K. from January 1995 through June 1996 and in January 1998, June 2001, and April–May 2004, and funded by grants from the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research , the American Institute for Maghreb Studies, and the Academic Research Committee of Lafayette College. Writing was supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the University of Arizona, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I am grateful to these organizations for their support of this research. My research in France was greatly enhanced by my many meetings, discussions , and seminars with Michel Wieviorka, Lucette Valensi, and Fran- çois Pouillon of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. I thank Robert Ilbert, Jean-Marie Gouillon, staff, and students at TELEMME (Temps, espaces , langages, Europe méridionale, méditerranéenne), Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme, of the Université de Provence, for inviting me into their stimulating academic community during my stay in Aix-enProvence . This project never would have gotten underway had it not been for the immediate accueil of Marc Donato. Jean-Jacques Jordi was ever ready to offer advice, guidance, and motivation. Claude Delaye and his colleagues at Génealogie Algérie Maroc Tunisie assisted me as I worked for days in their archives, as did the librarians of the Centre de documentation historique sur l’Algérie. In Malta, the staff at the National Archives, Rabat, were remarkably persistent in locating documents for me. I thank Stephen Degiorgio and Tomas Freller for providing the spirited fellowship which made my research there so engaging. Father Laurence Attard of the Emigrants Commission in Valletta offered important advice. In Tunis, I especially thank Mickey and his comrades, Habib Kazadagli (Université de Tunis, Manouba), and Jeanne Mrad at CEMAT (Centre d’études maghrébines à Tunis). My ideas have been developed through conversations and debates with Jane Hill, the late Robert Netting, Tad Park, Ana Alonso, Hermann Rebel, Kevin Gosner, Jonathan Boyarin, and Susan Carol Rogers, and various “partners in crime”: Deborah House, Hsain Ilahiane, Ahmadou N’diade, Helen Robbins, Julianna Acheson, and Todd Fenton. Many people read the whole manuscript or key sections, including Gérard Althabe, Dan Bauer, Jennifer Gilbert, Deborah House, Susan Niles, Helen Robbins, David Rubin , Josh Sanborn, David Shulman, and Thomas Wilson. Lafayette College student Gozde Ulas assisted me with tape transcription, and Jackie Wogotz assisted with bibliographic entries. Nangula Shejavali helped in more ways than I can list. Finally, I thank Douglas Holmes and an anonymous reviewer for Indiana University Press, Shoshanna Green, and my editor, Rebecca Tolen, for their careful commentary and critique. I am grateful to the Institute of French Studies, New York University, and especially to Susan Carol Rogers, Emmanuelle Saada, Muriel Darmon, and Ed Berenson, for providing a home base of rich discussion and camaraderie during my fellowship there in 1998–1999. Many of my ideas were advanced through discussions with others at New York University, especially Thomas Abercrombie and Thomas Beidelman. I appreciate the warm welcome from John Olsen, Tad Park, Barbara Mills, Aomar Boum, and Mourad Mjahed and other members of the Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, when I was Visiting Scholar there in 2003–2004. I thank Lafayette College for granting me these research leaves and my colleagues at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology for their steady support of this project. Of course, my greatest debt is due the many pieds-noirs families I met in France. You have astounded me with your remarkable generosity, gracious hospitality, patience, trust, and whole-hearted emotional and practical soutien of this research. While I cannot mention everyone individually here, I want to especially recognize the Bonnici family, the...

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