Books & ideas

Newness: same old song?

Lucile Truffy — 2026-05-14T06:30:00Z

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.

Terrorists Under the Radar

Christian Chevandier — 2026-05-07T06:30:00Z

Alongside its Paris branch, the French terrorist group Action Directe also operated a Lyon branch, responsible for dozens of attacks and robberies, and marked by a crude ideology and domestic abuse within the group. We look back at far-left violence in the post-1968 era.

Does Truth Have a History?

Thomas Boccon-Gibod — 2026-05-05T08:05:30Z

Is Foucault's genealogy concerned with the will to truth or with truth itself? According to Pascal Engel, in maintaining the ambiguity between the two, Foucault ignored the norms of knowledge as an essential source of emancipation.

The Origins of Environmental History

Kevin Bouillot — 2026-04-28T07:03:34Z

Our understanding of nature differs from that of the Greeks and Romans. From the “month of the ox” to “the forest goddess,” the ancients never thought to separate humans from the flora and fauna around them.

Arendt in Dark Times

Anne Schwarz — 2026-04-23T07:30:00Z

As 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Hannah Arendt's death, a new book offers a fresh perspective on a little-known yet pivotal period in the philosopher's life and work.

An Anti-Totalitarian Publisher

Robin Freymond — 2026-04-16T07:30:00Z

Backed by Raymond Aron and Manès Sperber, the French publishing house Calmann-Lévy championed anti-communism and the fight against totalitarianism from the end of World War II.

To your machines, citizens!

Stanislas Deprez — 2026-04-14T07:00:00Z

Against the trend towards experts having exclusive control over technological development — justified on the grounds of the public's alleged incompetence — Adeline Barbin argues that citizens should be given greater power so as to ensure that techniques are consistent with democratic values.

A World of Waste

Jean-Philippe Pierron — 2026-03-31T08:00:00Z

We would rather not see or even think about our waste, but it has a lot to tell us about our habits, our lives, and more importantly, about what we are doing to our world today.

In Praise of the Unpropertied

Pierre Crétois — 2026-03-26T08:30:00Z

Marx misunderstood Proudhon: he criticized him for neglecting the relations of production, when in fact the French anarchist was interested in the political subjugation that, in his view, private property inevitably causes.

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.