This collection of original historical essays sheds new light on the French colonial experience and the African reaction to it and breaks new ground by looking at both sides of the colonial equation. Editor G. Wesley Johnson believes that a double impact characterized French colonial rule in Africa during the first six decades of the twentieth century. The contributors, selected for their long experience with France or French-speaking Africa, examine nine thematic areas–the economy, the military, elites, education, art, architecture, literature, race relations and prejudice, and politics–to see if and how reciprocal impact was felt. Finally, Johnson considers the utility of double impact as a concept for understanding France and French colonial society, Africa and its colonial society, and the colonial period which enmeshed the two cultures as a whole.