Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956

359 Pages·2011·18.089 MB·English

by  Tony Judt

PAST IMPERFECT

TONY
JUDT
J
PAST IMPERFECT
FRENCH INTELLECTUALS, 1944-1956
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEWYORKAND LONDON
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2011 by the Estate of Tony Judt
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Judt, Tony.
Past imperfect: French intellectuals, 1944-1956 / Tony Judt.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Originally published in Berkeley by University of California Press, 1992.
ISBN 978-0-8147-4356-0 (pbk. : acid-free paper) - ISBN 978-0-8147-4357-7 (e-book)
1. France—Intellectual life—2oth century. 2. Intellectuals—France—History—2oth century.
3. World War, 1939-1945-lnfluence. 4. Communism-History-2oth century. 5. France-Politics
and government-1945-1958. 6. France-Moral conditions-History-2oth century. 7. France-
Relations—Europe. 8. Europe—Relations—France. 9. Europe—Intellectual life—2oth century.
10. Europe-Politics and government-1945- I. Title.
DC33.7.1842 2011
305.5'52094409044-dc22 2010051539
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 987654321
Toute idee fausse finit dans k sang, mais Mistaken ideas always end in blood-
il styit toujours du sang des autres. C'est shed, but in every case it is someone
ce qui explique que certains de nos else's blood. That is why some of out
fbilosopkes se sentent a Ihise pour dire thinkers feel free to say just about
rfimporte quoi. anything.
Albert Camus
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE:
THE FORCE OF CIRCUMSTANCE? 13
1. Decline and Fall
The French Intellectual Community
at the End of the Third Republic 15
2. In the Light of Experience
The "Lessons" of Defeat and Occupation 26
3. Resistance and Revenge
The Semantics of Commitment
in the Aftermath of Liberation 45
4. What Is Political Justice?
Philosophical Anticipations of the Cold War 75
PART TWO:
THE BLOOD OF OTHERS 99
5. Show Trials
Political Terror in the East European
Mirror, 1947-1953 101
6. The Blind Force of History
The Philosophical Case for Terror 117
7. Today Things Are Clear
Doubts, Dissent, and Awakenings 139
PART THREE:
THE TREASON OF THE INTELLECTUALS 151
8. The Sacrifices of the Russian People
A Phenomenology of Intellectual Russophilia 153
9. About the East We Can Do Nothing
Of Double Standards and Bad Faith 168
10. America Has Gone Mad
Anti-Americanism in Historical Perspective 187
11. We Must Not Disillusion the Workers
On the Self-Abnegation and Elective Affinities
of the Intellectual 205
PART FOUR:
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM 227
12. Liberalism, There Is the Enemy
On Some Peculiarities of French
Political Thought 229
13. Gesto Dei per Francos
The Frenchness of French Intellectuals 246
14. Europe and the French Intellectuals
The Responsibilities of Power 275
CONCLUSION: GOODBYE TO ALL THAT? 293
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 321
INDEX 335
Acknowledgments
This book was written while I was on leave in Stanford, California, as the
guest of the Hoover Institution. I would like to offer my thanks to the
director and fellows of that institution for their generous support and for
access to their unrivaled library and archive holdings. My stay in Stanford
was made possible by a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim
Foundation. Research and reading at an earlier stage were conducted
with the support of fellowships from the Nuffield Foundation and the
Humanities Center of Stanford University. To all of these, and to New
York University for granting me a leave of absence during the year 1990,
my most grateful thanks and appreciation.
Some of the arguments developed in this book were presented as lec-
tures, seminar papers, or articles in the course of recent years. They have
thus benefited from the comments of many friends and colleagues, and
it is a pleasure to acknowledge these contributions, too many to list in
full. Helen Solanum read the whole typescript—twice! Her help and
support have been invaluable.
I should also like to express my appreciation for the lively and intense
discussions of some of the themes of this book that took place in my
graduate seminar in New York, and for similarly provocative exchanges in
Jacques Rupnik's seminar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales, whose guest I was in the spring of 1989. Not the least interest-
ing lesson of these experiences has been the marked difference in the way
in which French and American graduate students approach problems of
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