Books & ideas

Injustices That Will Not Pass

Magali Bessone — 2019-02-21T06:00:00Z

How can we think about our responsibility in the face of past crimes whose consequences continue to weigh on the living conditions of their victims or descendants? One first step, for the philosopher Catherine Lu, would be to acknowledge and theorise the colonial roots of our world order.

The Colour of Law

Alice Béja — 2018-11-26T07:00:00Z

A new anthology provides French translations of key texts in the field of Critical Race Theory, as it has developed over the past 40 years in the United States. They help us to understand the decisive role played by legal discourse and practice in the social, historical, and cultural construction of race.

The Avenue of Escape

François Bonnet — 2018-11-15T07:00:00Z

All over the world, from India, Sierra Leone and Mexico to 1970s France and revolutionary Tunisia, people have tried to escape from prison. How is a prison break conceived, how it is planned and what does it signify to those who experience it and those who dream of it?

Of Cities and Their Mores

Denis Bocquet — 2018-11-12T08:00:00Z

What do late nineteenth-century Berlin and Cairo have in common? The German historian Joseph Ben Prestel accepts the challenge of comparing these two cities in order to interrogate the boundaries between Europe and the Middle East, as well as orientalism's assumptions.

When Creativity Becomes the Watchword

Olivier Alexandre — 2018-10-22T07:00:00Z

‘Let's be creative!' Andreas Reckwitz traces the genealogy of this word, joyfully exploring its successive historic circumvolutions. A stimulating work that has not relinquished a certain philosophy of history.

Medicine of the Black Body

Élodie Edwards-Grossi — 2018-10-18T07:00:00Z

The flourishing history of the relationship between race and health has recently turned to the origins of medicine in the United States and the decisive role played by enslaved Africans, both dead and alive. A history of duress, from which their voices nevertheless emerge.

A Call to Arms

Fanny Bugnon — 2018-10-08T07:00:00Z

When groups defined as minorities take a political stand, those in a dominant position often see it as a threat. In a genealogy of power viewed through the prism of resistance, Elsa Dorlin analyses the political self-defence traditions these groups employ.

Audio-power

Loïc Bertrand — 2018-10-04T07:30:00Z

Music naturally conveys emotion but, over the course of the 20^th century, it has also become a tool of manipulation and perhaps even a weapon of control. Juliette Volcler describes this process in her book devoted to the career and research of little-known sound engineer Harold Burris-Meyer.

The Homeland of Equality

Charles Lenoir — 2018-10-01T07:00:00Z

While many see the United States as a land of freedom, Sean Wilentz questions the passion for American equality. He takes a new look at the country's political life and the deep antagonism to political parties, periodically played out in the country.

The Empire of Plants

Pierre Nobi — 2018-09-27T07:00:00Z

Can one write a history of colonization through plants? This is the challenge taken up by Samir Boumediene in a book devoted to the modern-age production of botanical knowledge on both sides of the Atlantic.