Overview

This book argues that the French mind, shaped by the universalist ideals of the Enlightenment, was constructed upon contradictions that became structural. A belief in equality coexisted with racial hierarchy, a rhetoric of liberty accompanied colonial domination, and a self-image of rational virtue concealed persistent anxieties about otherness. These contradictions informed the Revolution, legitimized imperial expansion, organized the colonial order, and later guided France's postcolonial strategies in Africa. Over time, the unresolved tensions between universalism and domination returned to France itself, producing a society marked by resentment, racialized insecurity, and a fractured sense of identity. The making of the French mind is therefore also the narrative of its gradual unmaking.

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