Books & ideas

Portugal's revolution

Christophe Araújo — 2025-05-15T07:30:00Z

On April 25, 1974, a coup d'état led by young officers overthrew a nearly fifty-year old dictatorship in Portugal, inaugurating a revolutionary era. The historian Victor Pereira describes the origins and repercussions of this event—as well as its twists and turns, achievements, and doubts.

The Motivations Behind Jihad

Théo Blanc — 2025-02-25T05:00:00Z

Why did 5,000 Europeans join the jihad in Syria? The volunteers who left between 2011 and 2014 displayed a form of religious solidarity and a desire for revolution, which were later exploited by Daesh.

The Paris Commune as world-event

Constance Bantman — 2023-02-23T08:00:00Z

The Paris Commune is now a hundred and fifty years old. Quentin Deluermoz has written a global history of it, exploring its worldwide repercussions across space and time.

Against Hereditary Rights

Rafe Blaufarb — 2020-09-21T07:00:00Z

How did the French Revolution, after abolishing privilege, also become the foundation of modern inequality? Thomas Piketty's latest book focuses on the evolving ideological constructions of property across the ages and offers ways to solve the problem of inequality without challenging to the individual right to private property.

The Origins of the French État-providence

François-Xavier Merrien — 2020-01-13T08:00:00Z

For a long time, the origin of the term État-providence in French was ascribed to late Second Empire liberals who apparently coined it in a negative sense. In reality, though, the notion reaches further back to the generation of 1848, where it emerged as a response to working-class demands. Understood in this way, the expression regains its legitimacy.

Slave Ship Rebellions

Thomas Mareite — 2019-11-21T08:00:00Z

In 1841, the Creole, an American ship with 139 enslaved people onboard, was hijacked at sea by a group of determined rebels in their midst. Kerr-Ritchie's book sheds new light on this iconic episode of the Revolutionary Atlantic in the 19^th century, telling a tale of successful self-emancipation.

Reevaluating Terror in the French Revolution

Charles Walton — 2019-01-28T07:00:00Z

Was the French Revolution bound to become authoritarian? Do revolutionary ideologies always lead to violence? Annie Jourdan's book reconfigures mainstream narratives of the Revolution and provides an alternative interpretation of the ‘Reign of Terror'.

The Thorny Memory of the Russian Revolution

Korine Amacher — 2017-07-03T07:00:00Z

During the Soviet era, October 1917 was the central political and cultural reference. One hundred years later, Russian society is still deeply divided over its past. Will the centenary of the Revolution be the great moment of national reconciliation the Russian power wants it to be?

The Logic of Revolutions

Giedre Sabaseviciute — 2017-01-19T08:00:00Z

With the ‘Arab Springs', the question of revolution was raised afresh. Taking a comparative approach, H. Bozarslan and G. Delemestre analyse the link between revolution and the democratic process, focusing on the role played by intellectuals in the revolutionary dynamic.

Syria: the Strategy of Destruction

Leïla Vignal — 2016-06-06T07:00:00Z

For the past five years, the population of Syria has been undergoing severe repression at the hands of a regime implementing a policy of mass destruction, forcing over half of all Syrians to leave their homes, and seriously threatening the future of a country that has had the strength drained out of it.