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Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France
For thirty years after the Second World War, the French intellectual Left dominated cultural and political life in France as well as achieving immense influence and prestige internationally. Yet during the 1970s, a remarkable change Marxist and Leftist arguments dramatically collapsed; France's intellectuals, after veering sharply to the Right, arrived at a new understanding of liberalism and, abandoning Marxism and the idea of revolution, sought ways to govern the Republic.
In this original and challenging book, Sunil Khilnani examines how and why this massive shift in intellectual preferences took place. Unlike other accounts - which have interpreted Leftist political arguments as timeless philosophical debates or as indices of socio-economic developments - Khilnani skillfully explores the political contexts in which these arguments were advanced and defended. He argues that war and occupation had severely disrupted the nation's political identity, and that in these circumstances the language of revolution provided intellectuals with a ready terminology with which both to redefine the political community and to establish a special role for themselves. He discusses the forms of political criticism available to intellectuals after 1945, focusing on the arguments of the two most prominent revolutionary thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser. He then addresses the period between 1968 and 1981, when the idea of revolution came under attack, and the impact of Francois Furet's revisionist historiography of the French Revolution, which decisively undermined the very idea of revolution in France.
Khilnani concludes with remarks on the revival of intellectual interest in the idea of the Republic. This vigorous and highly accessible book will appeal to everyone curious about what has happened in French intellectual life since 1945, and to all concerned with the fate of the Left.
In this original and challenging book, Sunil Khilnani examines how and why this massive shift in intellectual preferences took place. Unlike other accounts - which have interpreted Leftist political arguments as timeless philosophical debates or as indices of socio-economic developments - Khilnani skillfully explores the political contexts in which these arguments were advanced and defended. He argues that war and occupation had severely disrupted the nation's political identity, and that in these circumstances the language of revolution provided intellectuals with a ready terminology with which both to redefine the political community and to establish a special role for themselves. He discusses the forms of political criticism available to intellectuals after 1945, focusing on the arguments of the two most prominent revolutionary thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser. He then addresses the period between 1968 and 1981, when the idea of revolution came under attack, and the impact of Francois Furet's revisionist historiography of the French Revolution, which decisively undermined the very idea of revolution in France.
Khilnani concludes with remarks on the revival of intellectual interest in the idea of the Republic. This vigorous and highly accessible book will appeal to everyone curious about what has happened in French intellectual life since 1945, and to all concerned with the fate of the Left.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Sunil Khilnani
16 books82 followersSunil Khilnani is holder of the Avantha Chair and Director of the India Institute, which he established at King’s in 2011.
Born in New Delhi, he grew up in India, Africa, and Europe. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took a first in Social and Political Sciences, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in Social and Political Sciences.
Prior to becoming Director of the King’s India Institute he was, from 2001 to 2011, the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS, a program that he established in 2002.
Sunil Khilnani was formerly Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been a visiting professor of politics at Seikei University, Tokyo, and was elected a Research Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has also held a Leverhulme Fellowship, and has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.
His publications include: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993); The Idea of India (7th edn. 2016); with Sudipta Kaviraj, Civil Society: History and Possibilities (2000); with Nandan Nilekani, Pratap Mehta etc al., NonAlignment 2.0: a Foreign Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013); with Arun Thiruvengadam and Vikram Raghavan, Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (2013);
His most recent book is Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part podcast and radio series broadcast on BBC Radio4 in 2015-2016.
Sunil Khilnani’s research interests lie at the intersection of various fields: intellectual history and the study of political thought, the history of modern India, democratic theory in relation to its recent non-Western experiences, the politics of contemporary India, and strategic thought in the definition of India’s place in the world. His is regular contributor to the Indian and international media.
Born in New Delhi, he grew up in India, Africa, and Europe. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took a first in Social and Political Sciences, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in Social and Political Sciences.
Prior to becoming Director of the King’s India Institute he was, from 2001 to 2011, the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS, a program that he established in 2002.
Sunil Khilnani was formerly Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been a visiting professor of politics at Seikei University, Tokyo, and was elected a Research Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has also held a Leverhulme Fellowship, and has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.
His publications include: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993); The Idea of India (7th edn. 2016); with Sudipta Kaviraj, Civil Society: History and Possibilities (2000); with Nandan Nilekani, Pratap Mehta etc al., NonAlignment 2.0: a Foreign Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013); with Arun Thiruvengadam and Vikram Raghavan, Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (2013);
His most recent book is Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part podcast and radio series broadcast on BBC Radio4 in 2015-2016.
Sunil Khilnani’s research interests lie at the intersection of various fields: intellectual history and the study of political thought, the history of modern India, democratic theory in relation to its recent non-Western experiences, the politics of contemporary India, and strategic thought in the definition of India’s place in the world. His is regular contributor to the Indian and international media.
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December 13, 2017
A very important read for those interested in Western Marxism and the New Left. A bit dry at times.
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