How the French Think: An Affectionate Portrait of an Intellectual People

Hazareesingh (The Legend of Napoleon), a professor of politics at Balliol College, Oxford, comes close to producing an intellectual history of modern France, from René Descartes to such poststructuralist thinkers as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Michel Foucault. But it is not quite that; instead, Hazareesingh addresses broad themes in French thought, including the “interplay... between the cold linearity of Descartes and the unbridled expansiveness of Rousseau”; the “lively French tradition of dissent, contrarianism, and impertinence”; the widespread belief in “providential leadership” that has fueled the rise of individuals from Napoleon to de Gaulle; and the “declinist sensibility” in recent French thought as manifested in the writings of such figures as Éric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkraut. Hazareesingh also offers a surprising insight on the extent of supernaturalism in French thought and politics, noting that, despite a longstanding French commitment to rationalism, leaders from Robespierre to Mitterrand have consulted astrologers. The main weakness of Hazareesingh’s book is that he covers too much ground in not enough space and in the process assumes of his readership too much familiarity with French thinkers. Despite this flaw, this is an equally informative and colorful tour d’horizon of the many strands of, and contradictions in, French philosophy and political thought during the past four centuries. [em](Oct.) [/em]