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.
We seem to struggle to take the measure of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its onset was sudden, its effects are uncertain and its long term consequences are still unpredictable. Books & Ideas gathers a selection of texts exploring the various facets of epidemics.
In this virtual roundtable published in partnership with Public Books, six contributors from France, Russia and the US address the issue of contemporary Russia and its often tense relations with the West.
Is there still room for hope at the White House?
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.
Among the recipients of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was Elinor Ostrom, for her analysis of economic governance, especially in relation to the commons. While this choice took many in the profession by surprise, her life-long quest for an understanding of successful common property resource management holds important lessons for our future.
Thanks to his work on Greco-Roman antiquity, his intellectual curiosity, his pronounced taste for interdisciplinarity, his sense of humor, and the freedom that informs all his research, Paul Veyne is a twentieth-century historian whose work cannot be avoided. A loose cannon at the heart of the academic establishment, a deep thinker and a dilettante, Veyne invites us, through his work, to a festival of thought.
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
