The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

Tony Judt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0226414183 | ISBN-13: 978-0226414188 | Edition: 1

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Intellectuals, virtually by definition, are expected to think for themselves. But the spectacle of intellectuals subordinating their independence of mind to dogmatic ideologies, whether left or right, is dismayingly common in the 20th century. The French call it la trahison des clercs. In The Burden of Responsibility, Tony Judt discusses three inspiring French intellectuals--Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron--who courageously lived up to their political, moral, and intellectual responsibilities. Their courage, Judt notes, is all the more impressive since they were all outsiders: Blum and Aron were Jews, while Camus was reared and educated in Algeria, far from the training grounds of the French intelligentsia.

The longest, and arguably most exciting, chapter is devoted to Blum, whose efforts against extremists on the Left and the Right are truly remarkable. As the moral center of the Socialist Party, Blum was instrumental in keeping it independent of Moscow. When France fell in 1940, the Vichy government put him on trial, but he defended himself so adroitly that the German authorities, fearing embarrassment, ended the proceedings abruptly; subsequently, Blum survived two years in Buchenwald and Dachau, serving briefly as prime minister after the war. The chapter on Camus is, understandably, less dramatic, even despite his work in the Resistance; the chapter on Aron, best known for his work on the philosophy of history, is positively anticlimactic. Nevertheless, Judt's juxtaposition of these three intellectuals provides enlightenment not only about modern French history but also about the role of the responsible intellectual in society. --Glenn Branch

From Publishers Weekly

New York University European studies professor Judt (Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944-1956) fashioned this book from three lectures he gave at the University of Chicago that presented an overview of some of the more complex political currents of modern France. He starts with a much vilified figure of the 1930s who is now largely ignored?the first Jewish (and Socialist) French premier, Leon Blum. Judt argues?not entirely convincingly?that Blum was more of a politician and less of an esthete than is generally thought. After Blum, Judt turns to a nemesis of the 1968 generation, the French conservative Raymond Aron. While Judt's discussion of individuals' changing fortunes provides an interesting view of the French intelligentsia, he overstates matters when he claims that Aron was universally accepted in France at the time of his death. In a somewhat less original contribution, Judt discusses the familiar figure of Albert Camus, apparently because he serves as a chronological link between the other two. Naturally, the brushstrokes are very broad in these brief studies, and many of Judt's assertions, particularly those that speculate about motive, are open to argument (Does anyone else think that Camus' journals are "funny"?). Since full-length studies of Blum and Aron are still awaiting translation from the French, these opinionated lectures serve as a useful incentive to read further on their subjects.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226414183
• ISBN-13: 978-0226414188
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tony Judt was born in London in 1948. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge and the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and has taught at Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley and New York University, where he is currently the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies and Director of the Remarque Institute, which is dedicated to the study of Europe and which he founded in 1995. The author or editor of twelve books, he is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The New Republic, The New York Times and many other journals in Europe and the US. Professor Judt is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Permanent Fellow of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna). He is the author of "Reappraisals: Reflections On The Forgotten Twentieth Century"" and Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945," which was one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2005, the winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Companion Volume to "Past Imperfect", June 18, 1999

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K. Garner (Farmington, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

Tony Judt's "The Burden of Responsibility" makes a fitting companion volume to his earlier "Past Imperfect" (1992). While that volume was concerned with how some of the most important post-war French intellectuals willfully blinded themselves to Stalinist atrocities, "Burden" shows us the obverse. Judt presents us with three clearly-written and balanced portraits of men who refused to let ideology shield them from confronting the complexities of their times. Each of these three men - Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron - were men of the Left but they refused to adhere to the (then-)standard line of justifying Communist political violence and terror in the name of the higher goal of revolutionary social transformation. The difficulties that each of these men faced in trying to etch out a moral and practical political position between the bitterly divisive ideological contests of their times, in Judt's view, makes each of these men distinctive. Yet, the author is even-handed enough to point out each of his protagonists' failures - Blum's inability to create a workable governing coalition or a rational economic policy, Camus's philosophical ineptitutdes, and Aron's rather mandarin arrogance, for example. Judt is fair enough to accept that many of their opponents's criticisms of them were justified (he doesn't turn his protagonists into saints or martyrs) but convincingly argues that each man gauged the issues of their day - (Socialism for Blum, Algeria for Camus, and Marxism for Aron) more accurately than their more ideologically-driven counterparts. All this is by way of saying that "The Burden of Responsibility" carries an unstated but not-so-discreet warning against the theoretically-driven academic left of our day. In his intelligent appraisal and recognition of three men who moved past the boundaires of ideological thinking and faced the contemporary issues as they actually existed, Judt also presents us with a model of intellectual enagement that goes beyond mere word-spinning. Both an compelling history of men caught in conflicts of their times (and Judt situates them in their epoch with masterly ease) and an engaging polemic, "The Burden of Responsibility" is an essential read for anyone interested in modern intellectual history.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monumental figures as human beings., February 20, 2000

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Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

Though this book is not intended to offer three character sketches per se, it has done more to bring these great twentieth-century Frenchmen to life for me than any other work I've read. Judt is able to bring some continuity to the idea of intellectual integrity by not only describing what each of these men stood for but also what they stood against. Yes, they all stood against Communism (with a big C), but each of them stood against elements of political and intellectual fashion in defense of their own convictions as well. Blum stood against malice. Camus, against moral relativity. And Aron, against intellectual ignorance and conformity. Together they did more to defend the human condition from political and intellectual tyranny than all other twentieth century French intellectuals. This is a powerful look at how the temptations of intellectual and political affiliation need not take the place of rigor and conviction. And, to be honest, it's lucid presentation of each character nearly brought this one to tears. Deserves to be read by a general audience, or anyone who continues to be mystified by these great French figures.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for lovers of French history, June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

This is one of the most illuminating books on mid-20th century French history I have come across. Tony Judt says a great deal in a short amount of space, and he says it in a manner that is clear and straight to the point. His strong sympathies with Blum, Camus and Aron are obvious, and perhaps a little more needs to be said to explain why so many other French intellectuals lost their way in these years amid the temptations of right-wing extremism, communism and plain self-importance. But that would have turned it into a different kind of book. Tony Judt has done a fine job in reminding us of the courage and good sense of these three men, who did more than most to uphold the dignity of their country in hard times. Congratulations, too, to the University of Chicago Press for publishing such an elegant volume.