https://booksandideas.net// Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007. en SPIP - www.spip.net https://booksandideas.net/local/cache-vignettes/L144xH68/siteon0-04014.png?1675949311 https://booksandideas.net// 68 144 https://booksandideas.net/The-lesson-of-the-Pandemic https://booksandideas.net/The-lesson-of-the-Pandemic 2026-05-11T07:11:00Z text/html en Guido Alfani History Middle Ages pandemic <p>An unparalleled demographic catastrophe, the Black Death disrupted the economic, social, and cultural balance of medieval Europe in the 14<sup class="typo_exposants">th</sup> century. Long considered a major turning point, it now appears as an indicator of the structures, limitations, and resilience of medieval societies.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Terrorists-Under-the-Radar https://booksandideas.net/Terrorists-Under-the-Radar 2026-05-07T06:30:00Z text/html en Christian Chevandier History violence terrorism May 68 Cairn.info <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Does-Truth-Have-a-History https://booksandideas.net/Does-Truth-Have-a-History 2026-05-05T08:05:30Z text/html en Thomas Boccon-Gibod Philosophy truth Foucault norms epistemology genealogy Cairn.info <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/The-Origins-of-Environmental-History https://booksandideas.net/The-Origins-of-Environmental-History 2026-04-28T07:03:34Z text/html en Kevin Bouillot History environment nature anthropology science Cairn.info symbole <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Returning-to-Life https://booksandideas.net/Returning-to-Life 2026-04-21T06:30:00Z text/html en Laura Hobson Faure History Shoah world war postwar <p>A collective work traces the emotional and psychological journeys of Holocaust survivors in the immediate postwar period. It examines both the practices of caregivers and the strategies survivors employed to reintegrate into society.</p> https://booksandideas.net/An-Anti-Totalitarian-Publisher https://booksandideas.net/An-Anti-Totalitarian-Publisher 2026-04-16T07:30:00Z text/html en Robin Freymond History communism publishing anti-totalitarianism Aron Cairn.info right <p>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 <span class="caps">II</span>.</p> https://booksandideas.net/To-your-machines-citizens https://booksandideas.net/To-your-machines-citizens 2026-04-14T07:00:00Z text/html en Stanislas Deprez Politics democracy <span class="caps">GMO</span> expertise technics Cairn.info <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/A-World-of-Waste https://booksandideas.net/A-World-of-Waste 2026-03-31T08:00:00Z text/html en Jean-Philippe Pierron Philosophy environment nature technics Cairn.info <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/In-Praise-of-the-Unpropertied https://booksandideas.net/In-Praise-of-the-Unpropertied 2026-03-26T08:30:00Z text/html en Pierre Crétois Philosophy property anarchism Marx Cairn.info Proudhon <p>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.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Roman-menus https://booksandideas.net/Roman-menus 2026-03-24T08:00:00Z text/html en Kevin Bouillot History culture medicine Rome Antiquity food Cairn.info <p>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.</p>