Making Morocco - by Jonathan Wyrtzen (Paperback)

About the Book

Jonathan Wyrtzen's Making Morocco is an extraordinary work of social science history. Making Morocco's historical coverage is remarkably thorough and sweeping; the author exhibits incredible scope in his research and mastery of an immensely rich set of materials from poetry to diplomatic messages in a variety of languages across a century of...

Book Synopsis

"There is no question that the value of a detailed account of Moroccan colonial history in English is an important addition to the field, and Wyrtzen's book will undoubtedly become a reference for Moroccan, North African, and Middle Eastern historians alike."
―American Historical Review

Jonathan Wyrtzen's Making Morocco is an extraordinary work of social science history. Making Morocco's historical coverage is remarkably thorough and sweeping; the author exhibits incredible scope in his research and mastery of an immensely rich set of materials from poetry to diplomatic messages in a variety of languages across a century of history.

The monograph engages with the most important theorists of nationalism, colonialism, and state formation, and uses Pierre Bourdieu's field theory as a framework to orient and organize the socio-historical problems of the case and to make sense of the different types of problems various actors faced as they moved forward.

His analysis makes constant reference to core categories of political sociology state, nation, political field, religious and political authority, identity and social boundaries, classification struggles, etc., and he does so in exceptionally clear and engaging prose. Rather than sidelining what might appear to be more tangential themes in the politics of identity formation in Morocco, Wyrtzen examines deeply not only French colonialism but also the Spanish zone, and he makes central to his analysis the Jewish question and the role of gender. These areas of analysis allow Wyrtzen to examine his outcome of interest--which is really a historical process of interest--from every conceivable analytical and empirical angle. The end-product is an absolutely exemplary study of colonialism, identity formation, and the classification struggles that accompany them.

This is not a work of high-brow social theory, but a classic work of history, deeply influenced but not excessively burdened by social-theoretical baggage.

Review Quotes

An erudite and eloquent contribution to both the historiography of colonial Morocco and to scholarship that examines and theorizes, from a relational perspective, processes of statemaking and collective identification.... This carefully researched and deftly written book should be obligatory reading for scholars interested in North Africa, colonialism, and postcolonialism, and processes of identity and state formation.

-- "Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism"

Bringing to bear both conventional archival and written sources, but also Berber poetry and the writings of others, Wyrtzen provides historically grounded accounts of how each became dynamized in the course of the liberation struggle.... This is where Making Morocco marks a significant methodological change from previous, largely ahistorical accounts of how the discursive frame was established.

-- "International Journal of Middle East Studies"

Contributes to an emergent body of English-language scholarship that is adding nuance, clarity, and intrigue to our understanding of Morocco's colonial period. Framed by the weighty problem of how colonisation transformed Morocco identity, Wyrtzen interlaces a wide array of narratives to tell a convincing story about the politicisation of religion, ethnicity, territory, and monarchy in the protectorate period.... The reason for Wyrtzen's success in crossing so much terrain in a relatively short period is his strategic deployment of theory and method and their transposition onto the structure of the book.

-- "The Journal of North African Studies"

Given newfound interest by economists and political scientists in the legacies of colonialism for contemporary politics and the unwieldy claims often found in postcolonial studies, Making Morocco injects a needed sociological precision into the comparative study of empires and nationalism.

-- "American Journal of Sociology"

There is no question that the value of a detailed account of Moroccan colonial history in English is an important addition to the field, and Wyrtzen's book will undoubtedly become a reference for Moroccan, North African, and Middle Eastern historians alike.

-- "American Historical Review"

Wyrtzen contributes to the existing literature in two important ways. First, he connects the colonial period to its influences in ongoing debates over Moroccan identity with relevant examples.... Second, he ambitiously attempts to bring together several topics of interest that are often addressed separately, such as the legacy of colonialism on Berber communities, conflict in the Rif Mountains, struggles in defining an Arab-Islamic identity and what that means for Moroccan Jews, and the role of women and monarchy in post-protectorate statehood.

-- "H-Net Reviews"

Wyrtzen has produced a nuanced account of Morocco's twentieth-century process of political identity formation. It is a welcome addition to recent English-language works extending across modern Moroccan history.... With its multi-vocal approach, this book contributes significantly to several fields at once, representing and respecting the polyphony of sources (and voices) both new and old in a timely, careful, and sophisticated work.

-- "French Studies"

Wyrtzen has written a book that examines colonialism through a slightly modified prism, but one that will appeal widely to scholars of colonialism and former colonial states.... [T]he book overall constitutes a useful intervention in interdisciplinary conversations about the ways in which the colonizers and the colonized together constructed a political field and a political project that was productive of collective identities, as well as fatally flawed.

-- "Journal of Modern History"

Wyrtzen's book is a refreshing reading of Morocco's contemporary history that draws on a wide body of historical literature and colonial writings to build an original perspective on the factors that shaped the history of contemporary Morocco and the identification processes of ordinary Moroccans.

-- "Contemporary Sociology"

About the Author

Jonathan Wyrtzen is Assistant Professor of Sociology and History at Yale University.