Tunisian Jewish thinker Albert Memmi's long essay is not only what he calls a "human balance sheet of colonization," but perhaps the most influential book ever written by a Tunisian. Memmi's pointed descriptions reveal the internal effects on the individual of living under colonial rule. We see not only the psychological cost of having too much power, but also the scars that mark those citizens who are systematically taught to think of themselves as inferior. For globally-connected Americans

—Hosam Aboul-Ela