Empire's Legacy: Roots of the Far Right in Contemporary France

This talk introduces Empire’s Legacy (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), which challenges the claim that globalization and its losers explain right-wing populism today. In France, a potential born of older relations between colonizers and colonized has revitalized the party of Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen. Starting with the French conquest of Algeria in 1830, Empire’s Legacy analyzes shifting settler identities under colonialism; and their place, nature, and transmission in the postcolonial Fifth Republic. Drawing on archival research, subject interviews, and electoral surveys, Empire’s Legacy charts an interdisciplinary course between history, sociology, political science, and discourse analysis. It also combines analysis at the local, national, and international levels. This shows the importance of ethnic cleavages, social milieus, government probity, and political responses. As such, Empire’s Legacy has implications for other party families, social movements, and subaltern politics.

John Veugelers is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. He has written widely on the far right, immigration politics, social movements, and voluntary associations in Canada, France, and Italy. His articles have appeared in a range of scholarly journals that includes: Ethnic and Racial Studies, International Sociology, British Journal of Sociology, Comparative European Politics, European Journal of Political Research, Sociological Quarterly, Current Sociology, Acta Sociologica, and West European Politics. A recipient of awards for outstanding teaching at the University of Toronto, he has been a visiting professor at universities in Europe, Asia, and Africa; and a visiting fellow at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.