In Uses and Abuses of History, Clara Palmiste examines the highly controversial French law 2005-158, especially its first and fourth articles which express officially a positive role of France’s overseas presence and explicitly impose this view on the educational system. Initially proposed as a means to recognize and repair a moral debt of the French State to the Pieds-noirs and the Harki, this law goes further and reaffirms France’s civilizing mission: its ambiguity reflects the ambivalence of French politics and the political use of history.