The Defeat of the Mind

by Alain Finkielkraut, Judith Friedlander (Translator)

Overview

A passionate critique of Enlightenment—both in its contemporary invocation and its historical and cultural use—and a call to arms to rethink human equality and liberty without the sacrifice of individual rights and ethnicities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231080231
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/23/1996
Series:	European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	165
Product dimensions:	0.43(w) x 5.50(h) x 8.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alaine Finkielkraut is the author of The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity (Columbia).

What People are Saying About This

Harold Bloom

[Finkielkraut's work] is one of the final flowerings of the spirit of Diderot. It teaches again the truths that ignorance can not foster freedom, that Shakespeare is of a different order than a pair of boots, and that rock religion is suicide.

Editorial Reviews

[Finkielkraut's work] is one of the final flowerings of the spirit of Diderot. It teaches again the truths that ignorance can not foster freedom, that Shakespeare is of a different order than a pair of boots, and that rock religion is suicide.

Harold Bloom

In France his books have contributed to a fresh appreciation of Enlightenment ideals as the best modern hope for Jews, for French citizens, and for human beings as such. . . . Splendidly translated by Judith Friedlander, [this book] should especially interest American readers since it takes up an issue that absorbs virtually all our attention today: the idea of 'culture.'

New York Times Book Review