Bernard-Henri Lévy

In this unprecedented critique, Bernard-Henri Levy, one of the world's leading intellectuals revisits his political roots, scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those on the horizon, and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times. Are human rights Western or universal? Does anti-Semitism have a future, and, if so, what will it look like? And how is it that progressives themselves--those who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascism--have now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous attitudes: an unthinking loathing of Israel; an obsessive anti-Americanism; an idea of "tolerance" that, in its justification of Islamic fanaticism, for example, could become the "cemetery of democracies"; and an indifference, masked by relativism, to the greatest human tragedies facing the world today? Illuminating these and other questions, Levy also brings to life his own autobiography, highlighting the thinkers he has known and scrutinized and the ideological battles he has fought over thirty years--revealing their bearing on the present.Above all, Levy offers a powerful new vision for progressives everywhere, one based neither on the failed idealisms of the past neither nor on their current misguided, bigoted, and dangerously sentimental attachments but on an absolute commitment to combat evil in all its guises. The "new barbarism" Levy compellingly diagnoses is real and must be confronted. At a time of ideological and political transition in America, Left in Dark Times is a polemical, incendiary articulation of the threats we all face--in many cases without our even being aware of it--and a riveting, cogent stand against those threats. Surprising and sure to be controversial, wise and free of cynicism, it is one of the most important books yet written by one of the crucial voices of our time.Praise for Bernard-Henri Levy's American Vertigo"An entertaining trip, as much in the tradition of Jack Kerouac as Tocqueville." --The New York Times "Perceptive, pugnacious, passionate [and] exquisitely written."--The New York Observer"It's difficult to remember when a writer of any nationality so clearly and thoughtfully delineated both the good and bad in America. [Grade:] A."--Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)"Levy is a true friend of the American experiment and a comrade in the American struggle against the barbarisms."--The New Republic"Levy writes brilliantly. American Vertigo is filled with insights and goodwill."--The Wall Street Journal"Provocative . . . [Levy is] a writer of enormous power and vitality."--San Francisco Chronicle"Vigorous . . . impressive."--The Boston GlobeFrom the Hardcover edition.

In 2008, two of the most celebrated of French intellectuals began a ferocious exchange of letters. In their inimitably confrontational correspondence, they lock horns on everything, including literature, sex, politics, family, fame and even - naturally - themselves. This title features their letters.

What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today? To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy spent a year travelling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about this country.

From the days when Zola and Peguy brandished their pens in pursuit of political action, the question of Literature at the service of Political Commitment has remained a live issue, most of all in France. As this century saw the rise first of Communism, then of Fascism, French intellectuals have hurried to take sides and devote their writings to the good of their chosen Cause. If Breton and some of his fellow-Surrealists, as also Sartre and Aragon, favoured the Left, Bataille, Celine and Drieu La Rochelle were no less passionate advocates of the Far Right. There were also nice shadings of political casuistry as Red veered to Pink and eventually even to True Blue; Malraux was one of the great men to skate across the spectrum. In this book we shall witness many a sacred cow being led to the slaughter as we consider the impact on the French intelligentsia of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Third Reich, the Spanish Civil War, the Algerian War and other crucial turning points in this century, and the nation's writers fashion a philosophy to match. To follow Bernard-Henri Levy, one of the high priests of the "new philosophers", in his quest is an altogether stimulating exercise.

Offers an exploration of what it means to be a Jew, rooted in the Talmudic tradition of argument and conflict. "For more than four decades, Bernard-Henri Lévy has been a singular figure on the world stage--one of the great moral voices of our time. Now Europe's foremost philosopher and activist confronts his spiritual roots and the religion that has always inspired and shaped him--but that he has never fully reckoned with. The Genius of Judaism is a breathtaking new vision and understanding of what it means to be a Jew, a vision quite different from the one we're used to. It is rooted in the Talmudic traditions of argument and conflict, rather than biblical commandments, borne out in struggle and study, not in blind observance. At the very heart of the matter is an obligation to the other, to the dispossessed, and to the forgotten, an obligation that, as Lévy vividly recounts, he has sought to embody over decades of championing "lost causes," from Bosnia to Africa's forgotten wars, from Libya to the Kurdish Peshmerga's desperate fight against the Islamic State, a battle raging as we speak. Lévy offers a fresh, surprising critique of a new and stealthy form of anti-Semitism on the rise as well as a provocative defense of Israel from the left. He reveals the overlooked Jewish roots of Western democratic ideals and confronts the current Islamist threat while intellectually dismantling it. Jews are not a "chosen people," Lévy explains, but a "treasure" whose spirit must continue to inform moral thinking and courage today. Lévy's most passionate book, and in many ways his most personal, The Genius of Judaism is a great, profound, and hypnotic intellectual reckoning--indeed a call to arms--by one of the keenest and most insightful writers in the world."--Jacket.

Ce visage, c'est celui de Benjamin, le héros, dont la destinée tragique et sombre traverse en effet le Paris de l'Occupation, le New York des années cinquante, la Rome des poseurs de bombes, les barricades de Mai 68, le Beyrouth en flammes des Palestiniens ou la Jérusalem d'aujourd'hui.