Neil MacMaster is a British historian with a doctorate from the University of Cambridge, where he completed a thesis on French Jansenism in 1972. He began his career teaching European history. From the 1980s onward, he specialized in the contemporary history of Algeria, becoming a recognized expert on the colonial period and the War of National Liberation. His research focuses on French colonization, Algerian emigration, racism and anti-racism in France, the status and role of women during the War of Independence, and the practice of "state terror" by France.

An Honorary Lecturer at the School of Politics, Social and International Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, he has distinguished himself through a rigorous methodological approach, drawing on in-depth archival research and fluent writing. His major works include Paris 1961: The Algerians, State Terror, and Memory (co-authored with Jim House), Burning the Veil: The Algerian War and the 'Emancipation' of Muslim Women, 1954-62, and War in the Mountains: Peasant Society and Counterinsurgency in Algeria, 1918-1958, which provides an in-depth analysis of the role of the peasantry in the struggle against French occupation and the politicization of Algerian rural communities.

Neil MacMaster is now retired, but his work continues to influence scholarship on colonial history, the Algerian War, and Franco-Algerian memory.

https://shs.cairn.info/publications-de-neil-macmaster--6398