Answering Torture's Apologists: Recent Work on Torture, Democracy and French History

Two new books by Darius Rejali (Torture and Democracy, PUP, 2007) and Marnia Lazreg (Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad, PUP, 2008) explore the relationship between torture and democratic regimes in the 20th century, with implications not only for French history but also for contemporary debates about the use of torture in other parts of the world. Rejali's international history refutes contemporary apologists for torture by demonstrating both its historical ineffectiveness while also seeking to explain its proliferation among democratic and repressive regimes alike. Lazreg's ethnographic approach complements Rejali's empirical account by exploring the meaning of torture for both victims and perpetrators in French Algeria between 1954 and 1962.