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.

作者簡介：

托尼·硃特（Tony Judt）

◎全球百大思想傢

◎奧威爾終身成就奬獲得者

◎21世紀初最頂尖的曆史學傢和思想傢

著名曆史學傢，以其對歐洲問題和歐洲思想的深入研究而聞名於世。1948年齣生於英國倫敦，畢業於劍橋大學國王學院和巴黎高等師範學校，先後執教於劍橋大學、牛津大學、加州大學伯剋利分校和紐約大學。

1995年，創辦雷馬剋研究所，專事歐洲問題研究；

1996年，當選美國文理科學院院士；

2007年，當選英國社會科學院院士；

2008年，入選美國《外交政策》評選的“全球百大思想傢”；

2009年，以其卓越的“智慧、洞察力和非凡的勇氣”獲得奧威爾終生成就奬。

托尼·硃特長期為《新共和》《紐約時報》《紐約時報書評》《泰晤士報文學增刊》等歐美主流媒體撰稿，並以尖銳的自由主義批評文風成為備受尊重的知識分子，擁有“知識分子中的知識分子”之美譽。

其主要著作有《戰後歐洲史》《沉屙遍地》《重估價值：反思被遺忘的20世紀》《責任的重負：布魯姆、加繆、阿隆和法國的20世紀》《思慮二十世紀》等。其中，《戰後歐洲史》被譽為“關於戰後歐洲曆史的最佳著作”“短時間內無法超越的偉大著作”。

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譯者簡介：

章樂天

獨立記者、獨立書評人和專欄作傢。譯作另有《開端》《思慮中國》《加繆和薩特》等。