The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

“Fanon is a fascinating character who has come more and more into focus as post-colonial politics and the politics of race have become vital to the way we see our world and how it is constructed. He is also a quite important figure in the history of psychiatry. He was born in Martinique as a French citizen. French colonies are not called precisely colonies, they become departments of the metropole. By fighting for France in the war and by going to study psychiatry in France, Fanon, first of all, seems a figure who would be very much in line with the French theory of assimilation, in which you are a French citizen before any other identity. This is a very problematic concept, as we see among France’s Arab population at the moment.” Read more...

The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize

Roy Foster, Historian