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.
Primitive societies, Lévy-Bruhl explains, are on the lookout for signs of catastrophes, though they are unpredictable. Since we, too, are in a constant state of alert, this insight should inspire us.
In their recent research about Israeli politics, Noam Gidron and his coauthors explore the country’s affective polarization, the support for the judicial overhaul, Likud’s populism, and the relations between them.
Can Nietzsche be considered a social thinker? Straddling social critique and critique of the social, French and German interpretive traditions that embrace Nietzsche make it necessary to revise the hasty conclusions of Marxists and anti-postmodernists.
Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty’s economic history of political conflict in France is a defense of bipartition: The Left-Right divide, which is the foundation of our democracy, has enabled social progress. We must therefore work to restore it.
About: Julia Cagé & Thomas Piketty, A History of Political Conflict : Elections and Social Inequalities in France, 1789-2022, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
About: Nina Valbousquet, Les âmes tièdes. Le Vatican face à la Shoah, La Découverte
About: François Azouvi, Du héros à la victime : la métamorphose contemporaine du sacré, Gallimard
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.
Ukraine’s water networks have been mobilized since the start of the war in 2014. Infrastructure workers are some of the last to leave settlements attacked by the Russian army. Water systems and people are resisting but are reaching the limits of their capacity to adapt to violence and disruptions.
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.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be offering weekly selections of reviews and essays published over the last year. This week’s selection questions the relationship between gender and politics.
A selection of five essays and reviews recently published in Books&Ideas discusses the legacy and renewal of social class studies in France, Great-Britain and India.
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.
In an innovative study that returns Albert Camus’ early works to their rightful place in the canon, Laurent Bove suggests we should view Camus as a philosopher of immanence and of acquiescence to the joy of the world. This reading is enlightening as far as Camus’ thoughts on history are concerned, but tends to gloss over the ruptures that run though his work, which is driven with multiple tensions.
Though poorly known in France, the work of the anthropologist Mary Douglas is nonetheless essential for understanding the elementary forms of social organization and daily life. By shedding light on her academic career and personal life, this portrait rehabilitates the thought of a major intellectual.
À l’heure de l’administration Trump II, l’Europe doit se tourner vers l’autonomie stratégique pour compenser le déclin de la relation transatlantique. Cela implique de financer les capacités militaires et l’indépendance économique de l’Europe par la dette communautaire.
Derrière les milliers de certificats d’exilés arméniens passés par Marseille se cachent les traces d’un génocide et des chemins innombrables empruntés par ses survivants. Dans les marges, les ratures et les silences des formulaires administratifs se lisent la fin d’un monde et la survie.
Dans la Chine de Xi Jinping où toute dissidence semble impossible, des publications hétérodoxes ont continué à s’exprimer sur des supports divers, même s’il reste difficile de saisir les logiques de la censure et des sanctions auxquelles les auteurs se sont exposés : une anthologie en esquisse le panorama.
À propos de : Mélanie Plouviez, L’injustice en héritage, La Découverte
À propos de : Pierre Nevejans, Diplomaties plurielles au XVIᵉ siècle. Florence et la France à la fin des guerres d’Italie, Classiques Garnier
À propos de : Johann Michel, Lire les images. Herméneutique de l’art, Puf
