Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956
- ISBN-10
- 0814743927
- ISBN-13
- 9780814743928
- Series
- Past Imperfect
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 348
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011
- Publisher
- NYU Press
- Author
- Tony Judt
Description
Swept up in the vortex of communism, French postwar intellectuals developed a blind spot to Stalinist tyranny. Albert Camus, who had been an authentic moral voice of the Resistance, pretended not to know about the crimes and terrors of the Soviet Union. Jean-Paul Sartre perverted logic to make an apologia for the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Simone de Beauvoir called for social change to be brought about in a single convulsion, or else not at all. Foolish French thinkers, suffering self-imposed moral anesthesia, defended the credibility of the show trials in Stalinized Eastern Europe. In a devastating study, Judt, a professor of European studies at New York University, argues that the belief system of postwar intellectuals, propped up by faith in communism, reflected fatal weaknesses in French culture such as the fragility of the liberal tradition and the penchant for grand theory. He also strips away the postwar myth that the small, fighting French Resistance was assisted by the mass of the nation.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2021
- 240 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Past Imperfect: A Novel
By Julian FellowesIt was a time when everything seemed to be changing—and it was, but not always quite as expected. Past Imperfect is Julian Fellowes at his best--a novel of secrets, status, and a world in upheaval.
-
Past Imperfect
By Julian FellowesDamian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern...
-
Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies
By Mark C. CarnesEssays that consider how classic movies have reflected history include the writings of such noted historians as Paul Fussell, Antonia Fraser, and Gore Vidal
-
Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, and Fraud--American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin
By Peter Charles Hoffer... and Fraud--American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin Peter Charles Hoffer. Libraries to Remove Discredited Bellesiles Book from Shelves , ” U.S. Newswire , January 8 , 2003 ; Jason Hoppin ...
-
Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956
By Tony Judt-James Miller , The Washington Post " Past Imperfect is a forthright and uncommonly damning study of those intellectually volatile years [ 1944-1956 ) . Mr. Judt ... does more than simply describe the ideological acrobatics of his ...
-
Past Imperfect: An Autobiography
By Joan CollinsPast Imperfect: An Autobiography
-
Past Imperfect
By Emma van der Vliet... 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group(Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia(a divisionof Pearson Australia Group PtyLtd) PenguinBooks IndiaPvt Ltd, ...
-
Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin
By Peter Charles HofferThis is their story, set against the wider narrative of the writing of America's history. It may be, as Flaubert put it, that "Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times.
-
Past Imperfect
By Suzanne BuffamThese are poems of great intensity, driven by intelligence, tracing the barely knowable contours of a soul-in-progress.
-
Past Imperfect
By Kathleen HillsKathleen Hills. Past Imperfect Past Imperfect Kathleen Hills Poisoned Pen Press Copyright © 2002.