Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007.
Following in Paul Ricœur’s footsteps, Olivier Mongin proposes an interpretation of politics as a tension between state domination at “the top” and living together at “the bottom.” This tension, he argues, contains a potential for reciprocal violence that poses a threat to democracy.
Michel Crozier’s work was shaped by the conviction that organizational phenomena create society. He helped pioneer the tools for analyzing groups established to carry out a common project according to a specific system of action and rules of the game.
The “California dream” does not date back to the Gold Rush of the 19th century, but only to the 20th, and is more a matter of criticism than enthusiasm. Louis Warren invites us to put this myth into perspective, and to be wary of the tendency to see California as the laboratory of the United States.
A new archaeology has emerged whose contributions to our understanding of twentieth-century mass violence oscillate between history and memory. A specialist in the field provides an impressive overview that sounds very much like a plea.
Under the Ancien Régime, salaries were not enough to live on. Many people had to combine activities to make ends meet. Laurence Fontaine paints a vivid picture of this reality.
About: Jean-Marc Berlière, La Police à Paris en 1900. Plongée dans l’univers violent de la Belle Époque, Nouveau Monde Édition
About: Adeline Grand-Clément, Au plaisir des dieux. Expériences du sensible dans les rituels en Grèce ancienne, Anacharsis
About : Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, La verticale de la peur. Ordre et allégeance en Russie poutinienne, La Découverte
The EU aims for net climate neutrality by 2050, utilizing the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) as its main tool. But the climate crisis demands more than market mechanisms. It requires comprehensive planning and legal frameworks that prioritize public over private interests.
Jane Mansbridge has made a major contribution to political theory. She has spent her life combining empirical research with a theoretical approach, and has played a vital role in developing the critique of rational choice and the study of democracy as a permanent process continually in flux.
Rorty made conversation a philosophical genre in its own right, which led him to reject any distinctions he considered futile: between analytic and continental philosophy, between the Enlightenment and postmodernity, between philosophy and literature.
Summer is here. Books&Ideas is off on holiday. We will be back with new publications starting August 29th. In the meantime, here is a selection of essays, interviews and reviews published over the past year.
Twenty years after the publication of Viviana Zelizer’s “The Social Meaning of Money”, this special issue brings together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to examine the genesis of the book, its impact in shaping the analysis of economic value, and its enduring intellectual influence on both sides of the Atlantic.
A selection of four essays recently published on Books & Ideas offers new perspectives on the definition, historiography and potential applications of environmental theory.
What distinguishes a blank canvas from an empty frame? A simple object from a readymade? What is this mysterious gap that art digs as it separates from life? Such are the questions posed by Arthur Danto, a major figure of contemporary art theory.
Ronald Coase (1910-2013), the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Economics, is famous for his oft-quoted and just as often misunderstood “theorem.” His seminal works on transaction costs, property rights, and regulation continue to stimulate a rich reflection in economics and beyond.
Deux ans et demi de siège, près de deux millions de morts dont la moitié de civils : le siège de Leningrad est l’un des épisodes les plus meurtriers de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Dans le discours officiel, cette histoire de famine, de froid et de mort a été convertie en un exploit glorieux.
Méconnu pour beaucoup, mésestimé par d’autres, José Ortega y Gasset a été l’un des premiers et des plus fervents défenseurs d’une Europe communautaire à inventer. La biographie intellectuelle que lui a consacrée Béatrice Fonck nous permet de (re)découvrir cet influent philosophe espagnol
Sous l’Ancien régime, l’avortement n’existe pas comme catégorie juridique distincte. Il ne s’en pratique pas moins et est criminalisé lorsqu’il est associé à une transgression sexuelle. Comment dès lors faire l’histoire d’un impensé et d’une pratique dissimulée ?
À propos de : Erik Olin Wright, Pourquoi la classe compte. Capitalisme, genre et conscience de classe, Amsterdam
À propos de : Maud Gelly, Les Politiques du tri. D’une épidémie à l’autre (SIDA, COVID), Le Croquant.
À propos de : Théo Boulakia, Nicolas Mariot, L’attestation. Une expérience d’obéissance de masse, printemps 2020, Anamosa
