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.
In an era marked by ideological conflict and geopolitical rivalry between the two superpowers, France managed to chart its own course, far from traditional bipolar frameworks.
What is the nature of the distinctive rationality that underpins Cleisthenes’ reform, which many see as the birth of Greek democracy? What social mechanisms, civic experiences, and forms of vernacular knowledge made this new system of political organization possible?
The love for newness did not begin with modern consumer society. It has long been capitalism’s primary engine and has been central to how it imagines the market. At present, its environmental impact is disastrous.
About: Laurent Jaffro, Le miroir de la sympathie. Adam Smith et le sentimentalisme, Vrin
About: Patrick Boucheron, Peste Noire, Seuil
About: Richard Schittly, Les Oubliés d’Action directe. De l’ultra-gauche au terrorisme, La Manufacture des livres
The female silhouette – understood as the body’s visible form and socially perceived appearance – has long been shaped by social norms. In the age of social media, these norms are intensifying, prompting, in response, the rise of so-called “body-positive” movements.
A rumour is circulating in some African countries: the French state is organising penis thefts to offset declining fertility. The rumour, spread by Russian propaganda, has become fake news.
The American sociologist Harrison White made a vital contribution to the development of social network analysis. Besides his work in this field, his theoretical synthesis and his understanding of social formations have influenced a variety of fields such as the sociology of art and economic sociology.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer. In the meantime, here is our weekly selection of reviews published over the past year.
Is it really the case, as is often alleged, that money decides everything about elections? As the US presidential election is looming, La Vie des idées/Books & Ideas and Public Books team up to examine the influence of money in today’s electoral democracies.
Five leading scholars of Big Tech studies share their views on the hopes and dangers of the on-going Digital Revolution. Their answers reveal the pressing need for more political, social and economic theorizing of these dynamics.
A highly respected figure in African studies, Jack Goody has become a distinctive voice in the torrent of academic critiques of western ethnocentrism. His work, spanning more than sixty years, has been based on a single ambition: comparison, for the sake of more accurately locating European history within Eurasian and world history.
“Do we have the right to make bets on the future of mankind?” Forty-one years after being the first ecologist candidate in a presidential campaign and publishing his manifesto book, René Dumont’s intuitions and warnings have lost little of their relevance.
By asserting that structuralism is a fruitful approach to kinship relations or the difference between the sexes, Françoise Héritier radically renewed anthropological methodology. Her life’s work has also shown us that scientific commitment goes hand-in-hand with societal involvement.
À la faveur de l’essor des IA génératives, la publication d’articles scientifiques s’est considérablement accrue. Ce développement exponentiel tend à se faire au détriment de l’évaluation par les pairs, suscitant in fine des interrogations quant à la qualité de la production académique.
Pendant la guerre d’Espagne, des milliers d’enfants ont été évacués vers la France, avant d’être rapatriés dans leur pays désormais aux mains des franquistes. Cet épisode méconnu s’intègre dans une histoire transnationale des mobilisations humanitaires.
Berlin est devenue, à partir du XIXe siècle, une très grande ville, qui a modifié en profondeur l’expérience de ses habitants et les manières de vivre, et que les Nazis, une fois au pouvoir, se sont efforcés de soumettre.
À propos de : Clément Fabre, À l’ombre de la race. Chine, XIXe siècle : une autre histoire des savoirs sur le corps, CNRS Éditions
À propos de : Anne de Guigné, Tout l’or du monde. De l’Antiquité à nos jours, les écrivains racontent l’économie, Fayard
À propos de : Florian Mazel et Yann Potin, Marc Bloch. L’histoire en résistance, Seuil
