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The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century
Using the lives of the three outstanding French intellectuals of the twentieth century, renowned historian Tony Judt offers a unique look at how intellectuals can ignore political pressures and demonstrate a heroic commitment to personal integrity and moral responsibility unfettered by the difficult political exigencies of their time.
Through the prism of the lives of Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron, Judt examines pivotal issues in the history of contemporary French society—antisemitism and the dilemma of Jewish identity, political and moral idealism in public life, the Marxist moment in French thought, the traumas of decolonization, the disaffection of the intelligentsia, and the insidious quarrels rending Right and Left. Judt focuses particularly on Blum's leadership of the Popular Front and his stern defiance of the Vichy governments, on Camus's part in the Resistance and Algerian War, and on Aron's cultural commentary and opposition to the facile acceptance by many French intellectuals of communism's utopian promise. Severely maligned by powerful critics and rivals, each of these exemplary figures stood fast in their principles and eventually won some measure of personal and public redemption.
Judt constructs a compelling portrait of modern French intellectual life and politics. He challenges the conventional account of the role of intellectuals precisely because they mattered in France, because they could shape public opinion and influence policy. In Blum, Camus, and Aron, Judt finds three very different men who did not simply play the role, but evinced a courage and a responsibility in public life that far outshone their contemporaries.
"An eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times
Through the prism of the lives of Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron, Judt examines pivotal issues in the history of contemporary French society—antisemitism and the dilemma of Jewish identity, political and moral idealism in public life, the Marxist moment in French thought, the traumas of decolonization, the disaffection of the intelligentsia, and the insidious quarrels rending Right and Left. Judt focuses particularly on Blum's leadership of the Popular Front and his stern defiance of the Vichy governments, on Camus's part in the Resistance and Algerian War, and on Aron's cultural commentary and opposition to the facile acceptance by many French intellectuals of communism's utopian promise. Severely maligned by powerful critics and rivals, each of these exemplary figures stood fast in their principles and eventually won some measure of personal and public redemption.
Judt constructs a compelling portrait of modern French intellectual life and politics. He challenges the conventional account of the role of intellectuals precisely because they mattered in France, because they could shape public opinion and influence policy. In Blum, Camus, and Aron, Judt finds three very different men who did not simply play the role, but evinced a courage and a responsibility in public life that far outshone their contemporaries.
"An eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times
204 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Tony Judt
56 books659 followersBorn in 1948, Tony Judt was raised in the East End of London by a mother whose parents had immigrated from Russia and a Belgian father who descended from a line of Lithuanian rabbis. Judt was educated at Emanuel School, before receiving a BA (1969) and PhD (1972) in history from the University of Cambridge.
Like many other Jewish parents living in postwar Europe, his mother and father were secular, but they sent him to Hebrew school and steeped him in the Yiddish culture of his grandparents, which Judt says he still thinks of wistfully. Urged on by his parents, Judt enthusiastically waded into the world of Israeli politics at age 15. He helped promote the migration of British Jews to Israel. In 1966, having won an exhibition to King's College Cambridge, he took a gap year and went to work on kibbutz Machanaim. When Nasser expelled UN troops from Sinai in 1967, and Israel mobilized for war, like many European Jews, he volunteered to replace kibbutz members who had been called up. During and in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, he worked as a driver and translator for the Israel Defense Forces.
But during the aftermath of the war, Judt's belief in the Zionist enterprise began to unravel. "I went with this idealistic fantasy of creating a socialist, communitarian country through work," Judt has said. The problem, he began to believe, was that this view was "remarkably unconscious of the people who had been kicked out of the country and were suffering in refugee camps to make this fantasy possible."
Career: King's College, Cambridge, England, fellow, 1972-78; University of California at Berkeley, assistant professor, 1978-80; St. Anne's College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, fellow, 1980-87; New York University, New York, NY, professor of history, 1987--, director of Remarque Institute, 1995--.
Awards: American Council of Learned Societies, fellow, 1980; British Academy Award for Research, 1984; Nuffield Foundation fellow, 1986; Guggenheim fellow, 1989; Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction finalist, 2006, for Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945.
Like many other Jewish parents living in postwar Europe, his mother and father were secular, but they sent him to Hebrew school and steeped him in the Yiddish culture of his grandparents, which Judt says he still thinks of wistfully. Urged on by his parents, Judt enthusiastically waded into the world of Israeli politics at age 15. He helped promote the migration of British Jews to Israel. In 1966, having won an exhibition to King's College Cambridge, he took a gap year and went to work on kibbutz Machanaim. When Nasser expelled UN troops from Sinai in 1967, and Israel mobilized for war, like many European Jews, he volunteered to replace kibbutz members who had been called up. During and in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, he worked as a driver and translator for the Israel Defense Forces.
But during the aftermath of the war, Judt's belief in the Zionist enterprise began to unravel. "I went with this idealistic fantasy of creating a socialist, communitarian country through work," Judt has said. The problem, he began to believe, was that this view was "remarkably unconscious of the people who had been kicked out of the country and were suffering in refugee camps to make this fantasy possible."
Career: King's College, Cambridge, England, fellow, 1972-78; University of California at Berkeley, assistant professor, 1978-80; St. Anne's College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, fellow, 1980-87; New York University, New York, NY, professor of history, 1987--, director of Remarque Institute, 1995--.
Awards: American Council of Learned Societies, fellow, 1980; British Academy Award for Research, 1984; Nuffield Foundation fellow, 1986; Guggenheim fellow, 1989; Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction finalist, 2006, for Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 10, 2010
Like hundreds of other grateful readers, I mourn the loss this week of Tony Judt. I first read his Past Imperfect in the early 90s, a scathing analysis of Sartre & Co.'s support of Stalinism. This book could be considered a companion piece, offering three examples of intellectual integrity. Judt's study of Camus is inspiring but hardly hagiographic, and belongs in the high company of Ronald Aronson's book. But it was Judt's chapter on Raymond Aron that most impressed me – and encouraged me to purchase Aron's The Dawn of Universal History: Selected Essays from a Witness of the Twentieth Century, for which Judt provided the introduction.
I've only dipped into Judt's collection, Reappraisals, and his monumental history of postwar Europe – but sooner or later I'll read them through. As his essays for the New York Review of Books have proved over the years, Judt was himself a public intellectual with a keen sense of responsibility and remarkable courage, even through the darkest days of his illness. He will be missed.
I've only dipped into Judt's collection, Reappraisals, and his monumental history of postwar Europe – but sooner or later I'll read them through. As his essays for the New York Review of Books have proved over the years, Judt was himself a public intellectual with a keen sense of responsibility and remarkable courage, even through the darkest days of his illness. He will be missed.
September 6, 2010
This is an excellent book, and is recommended. Judt reviews the moral and intellectual careers of three men of tangential centrality to European Modernity: Léon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron.
Judt attempts to show that each, while starting from the anti-fascist Left, had to come to grips with the totalitarian instincts that emerged in the postwar Left -- in the form of Stalinism, and tiers-mondisme (notably in Algeria, in the Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot...) -- and that each showed himself, in accepting this challenge that shirked by most of their contemporaries in the French Intelligensia (think Sartre...) as men of great moral courage and moral individuality.
They were men, you might say, of the radical center -- men of political responsibility -- setting themselves consciously in revolt against cruelty, brutality, and extremism -- *wherever* it was found. What Judt understands by this term "political responsibility" is shown by the following passage:
"Conceding to Necessity, aligning one's choices with those of History, in the sense used by Carl Schmitt (or by Hegel as interpreted by Alexandre Kojève) was a reactionary not a radical solution, and made no more appealing by the invocation of reason. In an early postwar essay Camus was to remark that what distinguished an ancien regime reactionary from a modern one (of Right and Left alike) was that the former claimed that reason determined nothing, whereas the latter thought that reason determined everything. In place of reason Camus invoked responsibility. Indeed, his writings bear witness to an ethic of responsibility deliberately set against the ethic of conviction..."
Throughout, Judt seems to be expressing views to which he was himself committed.
The writing is a bit sententious at times (for my taste) - hence the ranking -- but the book reads quickly and is of interest.
Judt attempts to show that each, while starting from the anti-fascist Left, had to come to grips with the totalitarian instincts that emerged in the postwar Left -- in the form of Stalinism, and tiers-mondisme (notably in Algeria, in the Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot...) -- and that each showed himself, in accepting this challenge that shirked by most of their contemporaries in the French Intelligensia (think Sartre...) as men of great moral courage and moral individuality.
They were men, you might say, of the radical center -- men of political responsibility -- setting themselves consciously in revolt against cruelty, brutality, and extremism -- *wherever* it was found. What Judt understands by this term "political responsibility" is shown by the following passage:
"Conceding to Necessity, aligning one's choices with those of History, in the sense used by Carl Schmitt (or by Hegel as interpreted by Alexandre Kojève) was a reactionary not a radical solution, and made no more appealing by the invocation of reason. In an early postwar essay Camus was to remark that what distinguished an ancien regime reactionary from a modern one (of Right and Left alike) was that the former claimed that reason determined nothing, whereas the latter thought that reason determined everything. In place of reason Camus invoked responsibility. Indeed, his writings bear witness to an ethic of responsibility deliberately set against the ethic of conviction..."
Throughout, Judt seems to be expressing views to which he was himself committed.
The writing is a bit sententious at times (for my taste) - hence the ranking -- but the book reads quickly and is of interest.
March 14, 2025
This book is about three Frenchmen, Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron.
They lived in, wrote during, and railed against three ages of irresponsibility in the French nation.
All played an important role in the France of their time but became objects of contempt, hatred, and suspicion.
Leon Blum defied the Vichy governments in World War II, Albert Camus was involved in the French resistance and the Algerian War, and Raymond Aron opposed his fellow intellectuals easy acceptance of the utopia of the Soviet Union.
They lived in, wrote during, and railed against three ages of irresponsibility in the French nation.
All played an important role in the France of their time but became objects of contempt, hatred, and suspicion.
Leon Blum defied the Vichy governments in World War II, Albert Camus was involved in the French resistance and the Algerian War, and Raymond Aron opposed his fellow intellectuals easy acceptance of the utopia of the Soviet Union.
September 5, 2016
У Джадта є дві книжки про французьких інтелектуалів - одна про мудаків (себто тих, хто виставляв своїй стороні й опонентам різні стандарти з низки принципових етичних питань штибу концтаборів чи використання тортур), друга про немудаків (тих, хто такого не робив). "Тягар відповідальності" - це як раз про немудаків у складі Леона Блюма, Альбера Камю й Реймона Арона. Як завжди, з чудовими джадтівськими формулюваннями штибу "The loyalty of French writers, thinkers, and professors to their ideas was only matched by their utter indifference to reality" (я хочу писати, як Джадт, коли виросту. Ви теж хочете писати, як Джадт, коли виростете). Як завжди, з типовим джадтівським песимізмом (послідовність у етичних стандартах до своєї сторони й іншої виявляють, по факту, найчастіше ті, хто з якихось причин не почувається повністю належним до жодної зі сторін).
July 11, 2013
I found this book very moving. The choice of persons Judt made is debatable, but each one is a person of interest, a real person, with good and bad points. The idea of perusing History through some of its actors' personal history is always interesting, even taking into account that it makes the book less an History book and more a book to read more like a novel. The advantage it is that the normal reader gets much more involved and, in a sense, learns more this way.
There are points specially relevant to the world today: the capacity these three men to stand by themselves against the society, searching for what they thought right, even at a personal cost. We all should learn from them.
There are points specially relevant to the world today: the capacity these three men to stand by themselves against the society, searching for what they thought right, even at a personal cost. We all should learn from them.
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July 12, 2008Unlike some of France's post WW2 intellectuals who left ideology make them look like fools (Sartre....) these three giant intellectuels publiques in France kept their integrity by remaining honest thinkers who kept to moral principles.
Have to be really into France to like this book.
Have to be really into France to like this book.
August 7, 2016
Before Tony Judt switched his focus to Eastern Europe, his original doctoral work and interest was in 20th century French political and intellectual history. This little book comes from that earlier interest. It consists of three essays on three French thinkers, writers and (at least in Blum's case) politicians who Judt clearly admired even though all three took more than their share of criticism from the intellectual left (think Sartre) who dominated 20th century French thinking. These three along with Judt himself all leaned significantly left but that did not prevent them from recognizing the truth, in particular about Stalinism.
Judt and his subjects believed that intellectuals, journalists, politicians etc. had an obligation, a responsibility to face truths and not to somehow justify unacceptable or irresponsible actions simply because one's emotions and desires would lead to a different conclusion. The prime example for Judt is Sartre, de Beauvoir, and most of the rest of the French left's insistence that Stalin's mass murders, show trials, etc. were acceptable because Marxism or Communism or whatever demanded it. To the bulk of French left wing intellectuals, the end justified the means even when the ends were nowhere in sight.
While some 20 years old now, the relevance to today is as great as ever. As we listen to some Sanders supporters insist that they cannot support Hillary even though they must know that if she loses Donald Trump becomes president and even though their agenda is not practical or achievable is exactly the same as the issues that Blum, Camus, Aron, and Judt addressed throughout the 20th Century in France. I recommend this highly for those who are willing to do some serious thinking.
Judt and his subjects believed that intellectuals, journalists, politicians etc. had an obligation, a responsibility to face truths and not to somehow justify unacceptable or irresponsible actions simply because one's emotions and desires would lead to a different conclusion. The prime example for Judt is Sartre, de Beauvoir, and most of the rest of the French left's insistence that Stalin's mass murders, show trials, etc. were acceptable because Marxism or Communism or whatever demanded it. To the bulk of French left wing intellectuals, the end justified the means even when the ends were nowhere in sight.
While some 20 years old now, the relevance to today is as great as ever. As we listen to some Sanders supporters insist that they cannot support Hillary even though they must know that if she loses Donald Trump becomes president and even though their agenda is not practical or achievable is exactly the same as the issues that Blum, Camus, Aron, and Judt addressed throughout the 20th Century in France. I recommend this highly for those who are willing to do some serious thinking.
July 8, 2008
Judt is a very attentive reader and a perceptive critic who clearly shows the difficulty of what each of these three tried to do: cut some kind of path between the Communist left and the liberal center. He also clearly describes the price they paid for much of their lives, almost in solitude, as he tells it, making enemies on all sides.
This collection could have used more centrifugal force, or a little more clarity behind the notion of 'responsibility,' which seems straightforward but is actually a little elusive. The introductory essay comes closest when it criticizes the tendency of (other) 20th cent. French intellectuals to "merely reflect back into the public sphere the country's own long-standing political divisions." And: "Ideological warfare substituted for attention to local realities, so that everything was politicized while few paid serious attention to politics." This almost suggests a connection between 'responsibility' and a non-ideological pragmatism, but that doesn't square with the principled social-democratic stances that Judt wants to show the three taking (and suffering for).
So, flawed but rewarding.
This collection could have used more centrifugal force, or a little more clarity behind the notion of 'responsibility,' which seems straightforward but is actually a little elusive. The introductory essay comes closest when it criticizes the tendency of (other) 20th cent. French intellectuals to "merely reflect back into the public sphere the country's own long-standing political divisions." And: "Ideological warfare substituted for attention to local realities, so that everything was politicized while few paid serious attention to politics." This almost suggests a connection between 'responsibility' and a non-ideological pragmatism, but that doesn't square with the principled social-democratic stances that Judt wants to show the three taking (and suffering for).
So, flawed but rewarding.
April 6, 2013
Interesting angle - brief profiles of three prominent left-leaning 20th Century European anti-communists, one an academic, one a politiican, and one a popular writer. As flawed as they all were, their work holds up better than their opponents who seemingly triumphed at the time, which is more a result of the three's human qualities than personal brilliance. Could be a little tighter, but then these were originally written as speeches rather than as a single comparative essay.
June 9, 2023
This book is a collection of Judt's thorough study of three French intellectuals who dutifully followed their heart to seek the best interest for France and to extend the good will to other people. All three "stood at the border of the cultural geographic map", all three made insightful observations, offered timely warnings and predicted future 10-30 years ahead of time. They're prophets in that sense, and prophets are bound to be alone in a messy and heated cultural fight. They were familiar with personal attacks and often took the attacks to heart, as they reflect often, they seek objective truth, and were unwilling to dismiss their attackers' points without careful examination. They don't belong to the mass, they rose above the mass and shone lights when the mass were blind and when their contemporary intellectuals were settled on partisan fights to keep their status quo while forsaking an intellectual's duty.
All three are imperfect, but they're admirable human beings and will be remembered as such.
All three are imperfect, but they're admirable human beings and will be remembered as such.
December 9, 2022
La responsabilidad moral de los intelectuales es el centro de este maravilloso ensayo de Tony Judt, en dónde demuestra con tres ejemplos de Blum, Camus y Aron. Cómo la integridad de pensamiento independiente es la mejor fortaleza contra el totalitarismo y contra un status quo intelectual plagado de lugares comunes y facilismos.
June 27, 2018
3.5/5 or 7/10
July 7, 2018
Muito boa introdução à obra e acção dos 3 monumentos do sec. XX francês. A não perder.
July 8, 2018
What
July 19, 2018
I thought especially the two chapters about Camus and Aron were very interesting.
January 12, 2020
raymond aron really gets the star treatment.
critical take: https://newleftreview.org/issues/II71...
critical take: https://newleftreview.org/issues/II71...
June 7, 2020
This book is very philosophical. It examines the lives of 3 20 century Frenchman and discusses their perspectives of intellectual life and politics
April 12, 2021
Very good sections on Camus and Aron.
June 7, 2023
Excelente livro sobre três pensadores, Blum, Camus e Aron, que se opuseram a intelectuais franceses lenientes com os crimes cometidos por regimes de esquerda.
August 13, 2024
Judt can do no wrong. Illuminating profiles of three influential French writers and intellectuals. Check back for a proper review soon!
February 4, 2016
hard going, but brilliant.
May 12, 2016
Judt merecia uma traduçãozinha melhor, hein? Que coisa terrível a desse livro.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews