French Intellectuals Against the Left: The Antitotalitarian Moment of the 1970s (Berghahn Monographs in French Studies, 2)

In the latter half of the 1970s, the French intellectual Left denounced communism, Marxism, and revolutionary politics through a critique of left-wing totalitarianism that paved the way for today&rsquos postmodern, liberal, and moderate republican political options. Contrary to the dominant understanding of the critique of totalitarianism as an abrupt rupture induced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn&rsquos The Gulag Archipelago, Christofferson argues that French anti-totalitarianism was the culmination of direct-democratic critiques of communism and revisions of the revolutionary project after 1956. The author&rsquos focus on the direct-democratic politics of French intellectuals offers an important alternative to recent histories that seek to explain the course of French intellectual politics by France&rsquos apparent lack of a liberal tradition.

In the latter half of the 1970s, the French intellectual Left denounced communism, Marxism, and revolutionary politics through a critique of left-wing totalitarianism that paved the way for today's postmodern, liberal, and moderate republican political options. Contrary to the dominant understanding of the critique of totalitarianism as an abrupt rupture induced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, Christofferson argues that French anti-totalitarianism was the culmination of direct-democratic critiques of communism and revisions of the revolutionary project after 1956. The author's focus on the direct-democratic politics of French intellectuals offers an important alternative to recent histories that seek to explain the course of French intellectual politics by France's apparent lack of a liberal tradition.

Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Notes From Fellow-Traveling to Revisionism Notes The Gulag as a Metaphor Notes Intellectuals and the Politics of the Union of the Left Notes Dissidence Celebrated Notes Antitotalitarianism Triumphant Notes Antitotalitarianism Against the Revolutionary Tradition Notes Epilogue and Conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources Index