Turn,

thanks for book suggestion. Just read a few preview pages on google books. Was thinking that it would start either with France's involvement in the Crusades or with the French colonization of Northern Africa.

I say that because, in a long debate about another topic...I brought up the nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment in the US that greeted immigrants from Catholic backgrounds during the mid 19th century here. These religious animosities have deep roots, as was explained to me. Some of the roots of the anti-Catholic sentiment were from atrocities that occurred centuries earlier in Europe to Protestants at the hands of Catholic leaders.

I'm thinking that a book about French/Arab relations would examine the entire history of the two "groups".

gonna try to find a podcast interview with the author.