Books & ideas

Moderating power

Johanna Lenne-Cornuez — 2026-07-08T12:16:58Z

Bernard Manin sees Montesquieu as a political philosopher who was attentive to the plurality of political forms and the way that such pluralism can, in moderate regimes, prevent the abuse of power. This is why it is important, he explains, to keep reading this Enlightenment philosopher.

Peace, prosperity, petroleum

Louis Fagon — 2026-06-23T07:04:14Z

The intensive use of carbon energies has brought prosperity, particularly since 1945, along with relatively peaceful international relations. Decarbonation makes it necessary, according to Pierre Charbonnier, to invent a new form of geopolitics.

Argentina's complex origins

Gonzague Espinosa-Dassonneville — 2026-06-11T16:11:59Z

Could Argentina, instead of being the modern country we know, have developed into fourteen independent states engaged in never-ending competition? From the “disunited province” of Rio de la Plata to the affirmation of a single nation-state, a new book describes a quest for unity that lasted five decades.
Reviewed: Geneviève Verdo, Des peuples en mal d'union. Aux origines de l'Argentine (Peoples without unity: The origins of Argentina) Paris Flammarion, 2025.

A total history of the Saint-Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Alexandre Goderniaux — 2026-06-09T07:20:00Z

Thirty years after La Nuit de la Saint-Barthélemy (Saint Bartholomew's Night), Denis Crouzet revisits the massacres of August 1572—a collective purge, a royal enigma, and a popular initiative, which his new book illuminates with bold erudition by reintroducing confessional violence, with all its historical depth, into the story.

The Origin of Byzantine Studies

Mathieu Couderc — 2026-06-02T08:12:22Z

It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that Byzantine studies acquired their official scientific and academic status, after a long process involving rigorous selection of the documents that have survived to the present day.

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.