Gregory Mann, Native sons: West African veterans and France in the twentieth century. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2006. [Review]

Before the publication of Marc Michel's L'Appel à l'Afrique in 1982 and Myron Echenberg's Colonial Conscripts in 1991, little was known of the service of African soldiers (or as they were called Tirailleurs Sénégalais) in the French army during the colonial period. The past decade, however, has seen a proliferation of studies, which deal with the soldiers from various angles and aspects. This academic attention is related to the renewed public interest in the subject in France, elicited mainly by immigrants from France's ex-colonies. It is important, however, to distinguish between cultural products such as novels and films (Rachid Bouchareb's film Indigènes is a notable example) aimed at reminding the French public of the sacrifices made by colonial subjects, and solid academic research that views the soldiers as part of the broader story of French colonialism.