Cunning like a heldgehog. In memory of Jean-François Revel, man of letters, man of integrity, friend
Par Simon Leys
The Australian Literary Review, 1 August 2007
G K. CHESTERTON, whose formidable mind drew inspiration from a vast culture - literary, political, poetical, historical and philosophical - once received the naive praise of a lady: “Oh, Mr Chesterton, you [...]
Paru dans le Times Literary Supplement le 30 novembre 2001, by Henri Astier.
Books reviewed:
- Régis Debray, L’Emprise, Gallimard, 146p, FF75, ISBN 2-07-075861-3
- Régis Debray, I.F. suite et fin, Gallimard, 190p, FF85, ISBN 2-07-076069-3
- Tzvetan Todorov, Mémoire du mal, Tentation du bien, Enquête sur le siècle, Robert Laffont, 356p, FF149, ISBN 2-221-09079-9
- Jean-François Revel, Les Plats [...]
Critique parue dans le Times Literary Supplement le 5 février 1993, par Henri Astier.
Books reviewed:
- Bernard Lacroix, Jacques Lagroye, eds, Le président de la République, usages et genèses d’une institution, Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 416p., 180F, ISBN 2 7246-0613-2.
- Jean-François Revel, L’Absolutisme inefficace, ou contre le présidentialisme à la française, [...]
Critique du Regain démocratique, paru dans le Times Literary Supplement le 28 août 1992, par Henri Astier.
Half-a-dozen essays written in the 1970s and 1980s established Jean-François Revel, a philosopher/journalist with a zest for anti-Gaullist pamphleteering, as France’s leading anti-communist intellectual. In best-sellers with dire titles like The Totalitarian Temptation or How Democracies Perish, Revel [...]
Critique de L’Histoire de la philosophie occidentale, à l’occasion de sa réédition, parue dans le Times Literary Supplement le 13 mai 1994, par Henri Astier.
This one-volume edition of Jean-Francois Revel’s two-part Histoire de la philosophie occidentale (first published in the late 1960s) covers thinkers from the pre-Socratics to Kant. It is a jargon-free narrative [...]
By Henri Astier
Pierre Boncenne, Pour Jean-François Revel: Un esprit libre
Plon, 343 pages, 21 euros, ISBN 2-259-19920-8
Pierre Boncenne has written the first book ever about Jean-François Revel. The fact that it was published after his death goes a long way towards proving its main point - the greatest French thinker of his age was also [...]
First published in The Times Literary Supplement in September 1st, 2000 and untitled «Worse than Hitler».
Jean François Revel, La grande parade, Essai sur la survie de l’utopie socialiste. Paris: Plon, 346p., F129 (€19,66) 2-259-19056-1
Reviewed by: Henri Astier
Before the collapse of communism many people on the left in the west took a bleak view of the [...]
The monk and the philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of LifeIn collaboration with his son Matthieu Ricard.
Amazon’s page on the book
Presentation: East Meets West in a Father-Son Dialogue
Another presentation of the book
Encounter Books, September 2003
Amazon’s page on the book
Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil: imperialistic, greedy, ruthlessly competitive–a hyperpower whose riches are acquired at the expense of the Third World.
Amazon’s page on The Flight from Truth : The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information
Europe’s Anti-American Obsession on American Enterprise Online
Why Do They Hate Us? Two Books Take Aim at French Anti-Americanism
Why Do Europeans Hate America? Jean-Francois Revel Explains.
Revel on Foreign Affairs Review
Par Henri Astier
First time published in the Times Literary Supplement on the 18th of March, 2005
Version augmentée par rapport à celle publiée dans le TLS.
Books reviewed:
Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization, New York, Oxford University Press, 308p, $28, £19.99, ISBN 0-19-517025-3
Martin Wolf, Why Globalization Works, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, [...]
Extracts of the introduction, on Encounterbooks website.
Extracts of the book on The new criterion website
An essay about Antiamericanism and “cultural exceptionalism”.
Why Do Europeans Hate America?
Jean-Francois Revel Explains.
A study by reviewing three books on this topic, by Henri Astier.
This article was published by the Times Literary Supplement on January 10, 2003 under the title “La maladie française”.
Jean-François Revel, L’Obsession antiaméricaine, Son fonctionnement, ses causes, ses inconséquencesPlon, 302 p, 20 euros, ISBN 2-259-19449-4.
(English version: Anti-Americanism)
Philippe Roger, L’Ennemi américain, Généalogie de l’antiaméricanisme [...]
Jean-Francois Revel was born in 1924 in Marseilles. He studied philosophy at University and taught it till 1963. Then, after the success of his first book Pourquoi des philosophes, he decided to concentrate on writting books and articles in newspapers.
At the end of the 70’s, he became the editor for many years of the [...]
Spilling the Beans in Paris and London
by Henri Astier.
First time published in the Contemporary Review, in June 1994.
Anglo-saxon readers don’t need to be reminded who George Orwell is, but a few words of introduction might help in the case of Jean-Francois Revel.
A philosopher turned journalist, Revel has been one of France’s most influential political analysts [...]