The uniquely prominent role of French intellectuals in European cultural and political life following World War II is the focus of Tony Judt's newest book. He analyzes this intellectual community's most divisive conflicts: how to respond to the promise and the betrayal of Communism and how to sustain a commitment to radical ideals when confronting the hypocrisy in Stalin's Soviet Union, in the new Eastern European Communist states, and in France itself. Judt shows why this was an all-consuming moral dilemma to a generation ...
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The uniquely prominent role of French intellectuals in European cultural and political life following World War II is the focus of Tony Judt's newest book. He analyzes this intellectual community's most divisive conflicts: how to respond to the promise and the betrayal of Communism and how to sustain a commitment to radical ideals when confronting the hypocrisy in Stalin's Soviet Union, in the new Eastern European Communist states, and in France itself. Judt shows why this was an all-consuming moral dilemma to a generation of French men and women, how their responses were conditioned by war and occupation, and how post-war political choices have come to sit uneasily on the conscience of later generations of French intellectuals. Judt's analysis extends beyond the writings of fashionable "Existentialist" personalities such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir to include a wide intellectual community of Catholic philosophers, non-aligned journalists, literary critics and poets, Communist and non-Communist alike. Judt treats the intellectual dilemmas of the postwar years as an unfinished history. French intellectuals have not fully come to terms with the gnawing sense of what Judt calls the "moral irresponsibility" of those years. The result, he suggests, is a legacy of bad faith and confusion that has damaged France's cultural standing, notably in newly liberated Eastern Europe, and which reflects the nation's larger difficulty in confronting its own ambivalent past.
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Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $11.37, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $13.95, very good condition, Sold by George Lyon rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Alexandria, VA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $14.98, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1992 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $15.00, good condition, Sold by Chaparral Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1992 by University of California Press.
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Seller's Description:
Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 6x1x9; Minor wear to binding. Light wear & soiling on edges of text block. Light pencil notations in the margins of text throughout. Light pencil & inked notes on rear pastedown. The dust jacket shows some light handling, in a mylar cover.
Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $15.00, very good condition, Sold by The Book Junction rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Shippensburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1992 by University of California Press.
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Seller's Description:
VG to VG- in VG to VG- jacket. DJ: some rubbing & edgewear; small creases at edges/corners; some yellowing/llight duststaining; light scratches. Book: some rubbing & edgewear; some yellowing; light duststaining on edges; previous owner's crimp inside; overall clean & tight. 348 pages.
Add this copy of Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 to cart. $19.75, like new condition, Sold by Sequitur Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Boonsboro, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by NYU Press.
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Seller's Description:
Like New. Size: 6x0x9; Softcover. Good binding and cover. Light wear. Small marking on title page, else unmarked. "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."
