French Mediterraneans: Transnational and Imperial Histories ed. by Patricia M. E. Lorcin and Todd Shepard (review)

The editors of this voluminous work, which spans a period from the end of the eighteenth century to decolonization in the mid-twentieth century, seek to explore the uniquely French contribution to the construction of the Mediterranean as a unified space—a view of the sea that was largely imposed on populations of its southern and eastern shores by western imperial powers. However, the majority of contributors to this volume were not trained as historians of France, the French empire, or European states. In bringing these scholars together, the editors were not so much interested in considering non-European actors or resistance to French colonialism but rather to bring the work of these historians, with their different historiographical concerns, into conversation with historians of France and the empire. The guiding idea is to convince all historians to take such work seriously in writing transnational and imperial histories that do not simply “export questions important to their national historiography beyond the usual borders” (3).

Although the editors, who were both trained in French history, see the limitations of national history and wish to embrace transnational and imperial perspectives in new ways, the focus on “French Mediterraneans” still seems to highlight one nation-state and to bring a nation-centered view in through the back door. The Mediterranean was a contested space among colonial powers, including Britain and the Ottoman Empire (as well as Italy later). Although some of the contributors pay attention to the role that these powers played in the region, France and the French empire still stand at the center of this undertaking in a way that is never fully justified.

The book is divided into three parts. The first explores how to rethink the manner in which the Mediterranean was “mapped.” The second explores the question of migration across the Mediterranean, and the third examines “margins remade (by the Mediterranean).” Although a few of the contributions in each part directly address the relationship between France and the disparate parts of the Mediterranean, particularly in Part One, many of them appear to be “stand alone” pieces about topics that are interesting in their own right. The problem of coherence is one that is inherent in edited volumes of this kind, but in this case, it is exacerbated by the sheer number of contributions—twelve in all—and by the range of interests among the scholars represented.

Several chapters in the volume are noteworthy for their originality and interdisciplinary dexterity, as well as for taking into full account local populations and other states and empires in the Mediterranean alongside the French. To cite one example, Spencer Segalla’s history of the 1960 Agadir earthquake reveals how responses to the earthquake were enmeshed in relationships between the Moroccan South, a French (or European) Mediterranean, and an American-dominated Atlantic. Based on an impressive array of archival and secondary sources, Segalla presents an environmental, political, and cultural history of a natural catastrophe (and its consequences in terms of architectural and urban history) that serves as a lens through which to analyze the political and cultural shifts that shaped modern Agadir and the decolonization in French North Africa. The earthquake helped to pave the way for the decline of French influence in Morocco and introduce new forms of American aid and urban planning, even as French urban planners and architects tried reassert their role in the town. Similarly, Mary Dewhurst Lewis’ chapter, “Europeans before Europe? The Mediterranean Prehistory of European Integration and Exclusion,” stresses European expansion in the Mediterranean as a competitive venture. It explores the juridical and political history of how France worked to create a “European” legal status in post 1880 Tunisia, even as it competed with other European states and the Ottoman Empire.

French Mediterraneans has much to recommend it. Whereas much of the recent modern work on the Mediterranean has focused on the early modern period, this volume moves into the nineteenth...