Frantz Fanon (1925-61), author of "The Wretched of the Earth", was one of the great figures of the Third World revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. His angry and eloquent writings on race, racism, psychiatry and anti-colonialism are still of fierce relevance. In the form of "post-colonial studies", his work has become respectable in the academies of the developed world. Born in Martinique, Fanon trained as a psychiatrist in metropolitan France before taking up a post in colonial Algeria. Here, he came into contact with the ...
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Frantz Fanon (1925-61), author of "The Wretched of the Earth", was one of the great figures of the Third World revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. His angry and eloquent writings on race, racism, psychiatry and anti-colonialism are still of fierce relevance. In the form of "post-colonial studies", his work has become respectable in the academies of the developed world. Born in Martinique, Fanon trained as a psychiatrist in metropolitan France before taking up a post in colonial Algeria. Here, he came into contact with the Front de Liberation National, which was fighting a bitter war of independence. Forced to flee Algeria when he resigned his post, Fanon subsequently worked with the FLN as a propagandist and ambassador, but also continued to work as a psychiatrist. Fanon died of leukaemia in Washington, aged 36. Based on extensive research, this biography aims to go beyond the myths that have grown up around the revolutionary hero and reveals Fanon to be a complex figure, infinitely more interesting than the theorist of anti-colonial violence celebrated by the left in the 1960s.
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