Books & ideas

Roman menus

Kevin Bouillot — 2026-03-24T08:00:00Z

Ancient Roman diets were based on health concerns as well as moral and political considerations. Frugality and pleasure were not mutually exclusive. Eating was about more than filling one's stomach.

Andalusia: political decline, cultural flourishing

Alexandre Giunta — 2024-03-28T08:35:00Z

At the beginning of the eleventh century, the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate coincided with political fragmentation. It was in this unusual context, soon to be exacerbated by Christian incursions from the north and Berber incursions from the south, that this part of the Muslim world experienced a flourishing culture.

Six Centuries of Climate Debate

Alexis Vrignon — 2023-11-02T09:00:00Z

From the very beginning of the modern era, Western societies have been debating over and worrying about the climate, its evolution and the responsibility of humans. On this topic, as on many others, the idea of a long prevailing great division between nature and culture is undermined.

Shifting Perspectives

Editorial Team — 2020-08-17T07:00:00Z

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 focuses on ways to shift our intellectual categories.

Nature Beyond Dualism

Claire Larroque — 2020-04-06T07:00:00Z

Modernity has been built on the idea of a fundamental divide between nature and culture, humans and non-humans, the world and the spirit. These distinctions are no longer viable, as shown by an interdisciplinary and collectively authored book.

Learning from Animals

Antoine Doré & Jérôme Michalon — 2020-03-19T08:00:00Z

Neither the social sciences nor the natural sciences are currently invested in studying the cultural relations between humans and animals. If we are to understand them, we must reconsider all our categories, and free ourselves once and for all from the nature-culture divide.

Sontag as Metaphor

Benjamin Balint — 2020-02-13T08:00:00Z

In this new biography of Susan Sontag, Benjamin Moser draws on hundreds of interviews and on the writer's restricted archives to offer a fascinating portrait of a woman driven to extremities both personal and intellectual.

Japanoise: Affect at the Edge of Music

Edouard Degay Delpeuch — 2018-11-29T07:00:00Z

In the 80's, a peculiar genre of underground music emerged: Japanoise—or Japanese Noise. Based on feedback, without melody nor structure, this genre is often perceived as the end of music. Drawing on the tools of media anthropology, David Novak traces the history of the construction of this genre.

Grand Tourism: Educational Journeys in 18th Century Europe

Marion Amblard — 2018-10-29T08:00:00Z

The Grand Tour was a journey on the European continent undertaken by 17^th and 18^th-century British aristocrats to perfect their education. This book reveals the importance, within this trip, of a city until now overlooked by scholarship: Turin, a political and cultural crossroad.

Mary Douglas, A Taste for Hierarchy

François Buton & Eric Soriano — 2018-07-09T07:00:00Z

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.