Raymond Aron: The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955/1962)

First published in 1955, this political reflection seeks to show how noble ideas can slide into the “tyranny of secular religion”. It stresses how political thought has the responsibility of telling the truth about social and political reality – in all its imperfections and complexities.

Aron explodes the three “myths” of radical thought: the Left, the Revolution, and the Proletariat. Each of these ideas, Aron shows, are ideological, mystifying rather than illuminating. He also provides a fascinating sociology of intellectual life and a powerful critique of historical determinism in the classically restrained prose for which he is justly famous.

First published in French L’Opium des intellectuels, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1955
First published in 1955
Translated by Terence Kilmartin
Foreword translated by Lucile H. Brockway
Publisher W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1962
324 pages

Review (Rudolf Allers)

Wikipedia (in French)

PDF

Julia Kristeva: Revolt, She Said (2002)

“May ’68 in France expressed a fundamental version of freedom: not freedom to succeed, but freedom to revolt. Political revolutions ultimately betray revolt because they cease to question themselves. Revolt, as I understand it—psychic revolt, analytic revolt, artistic revolt—refers to a permanent state of questioning, of transformations, an endless probing of appearances.

In this book, Julia Kristeva extends the definition of revolt beyond politics per se. Kristeva sees revolt as a state of permanent questioning and transformation, of change that characterizes psychic life and, in the best cases, art. For her, revolt is not simply about rejection and destruction—it is a necessary process of renewal and regeneration.”

An Interview by Philippe Petit
Translated by Brian O’Keeffe
Edited by Sylvère Lotringer
Publisher Semiotext(e), 2002
Foreign Agents series
ISBN 1584350156, 9781584350156
139 pages

Reviews: Simone Roberts (Common Knowledge), Pramod K. Nayar (Philosophy in Review), Philip Goodchild (Ars Disputanti), Adrian O. Johnston (Metapsychology).

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2017-6-26)

Mary Gabriel: Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (2011)

Brilliantly researched and wonderfully written, Love and Capital is a heartbreaking and dramatic saga of the family side of the man whose works would redefine the world after his death.

Drawing upon years of research, acclaimed biographer Mary Gabriel brings to light the story of Karl and Jenny Marx’s marriage. We follow them as they roam Europe, on the run from hostile governments amidst a secret network of would-be revolutionaries, and see Karl not only as an intellectual, but as a protective father and loving husband, a visionary, a jokester, a man of tremendous passions, both political and personal.

In Love and Capital, Mary Gabriel has given us a vivid, resplendent, and truly human portrait of the Marxes-their desires, heartbreak and devotion to each other’s ideals.

Publisher Little, Brown, 2011
ISBN 0316066125, 9780316066129
784 pages

Mary Gabriel reads from Love and Capital (2011 National Book Award Finalists Reading, video, 6 min)
interview with the author (Spencer A. Leonard, Platypus Review)
review (Troy Jollimore, Salon)
review (Simon Sebag Montefiore, The New York Times Sunday Book Review)

publisher
google books

PDF (MOBI)
PDF (alt link, MOBI)