Oppression and Liberty

by Simone Weil, Arthur Wills (Translator), John Petrie (Translator), F. Ellert (Introduction), F. C. Ellert (Introduction)

Overview

The remarkable French thinker Simone Weil is one of the leading intellectual and spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores in Oppression and Liberty its political and social implications. Analyzing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responses and presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870232510
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	05/31/1978
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1360L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Simone Weil (1909-43) was one of the most original philosophical, religious and political thinkers of the twentieth century; besides working as a teacher, a factory worker and a farmhand, she fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and was a member of the French resistance.

Table of Contents

Prospects: Are we Headed for the Proletarian Revolution?, Reflections Concerning Technocracy, National-Socialism, the U.S.S.R. and Certain Other Matters, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression, Fragments, 1933–1938, Fragments, London 1943, Is There a Marxist Doctrine?

Editorial Reviews

"We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of the saints."
-T.S. Eliot
"The best spiritual writer of this century."
-Andre Gide
"What makes this book worth reading - and it is extremely readable - is the clarity and force of the style and the sincerity of the emotions which led Simone Weil to reflect on political philosophy ... It is a book full of interest and insight, penetrating observations and stimulating suggestions with, even in its most pessimistic passages, a humane faith and sincerity that reinforce the reader's confidence in the possibility of a humanistic, rational and liberal order of society."
-The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher