French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Badiou, The Rebirth of History
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Circumstances - Volume 6, The Rebirth of History
By Alain Badiou
Published on: September 29, 2011
Publisher: Nouvelles Editions Lignes
Series: Lignes
ISBN: 978-2-355-26081-0
EAN: 9782355260810
No. of pages: 168
Publisher's price: 17.00€
In this sixth volume of the "Circumstances" series, Alain Badiou, writing as a philosopher, examines the world's latest upheavals: the Arab revolutions (Tunisia, Egypt), European revolts (Spain, Great Britain), and the global financial crisis.
This offers him an opportunity to test his theories of the event and of the communist Idea. Countering the motif of the "end of History" that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alain Badiou reaffirms the ever-fresh and exhilarating nature of the desire for emancipation, as exemplified by the current "age of riots." This era, which in his view heralds a "rebirth of History," must now be accompanied and conceptualized by philosophy.
"Just as the revolutions of 1848, beyond their immediate failures, heralded the return of revolutionary thought and action for a century and a half, so too the ongoing uprisings in the Arab world—beyond the quick fixes that the 'international community' will attempt to impose on them—signal, on a global scale, the return of the thought and action of emancipatory politics."
"A politics holds as eternal what the riot has brought to light in the form of the existence of an inexistent, which is the sole content of a rebirth of History."
Table of Contents:
CAPITALISM TODAY
THE IMMEDIATE RIOT
THE LATENT RIOT
THE HISTORIC RIOT
THE RIOT AND THE WEST
RIOT, EVENT, TRUTH
EVENT AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
STATE AND POLITICS: IDENTITY AND GENERICITY
DOCTRINAL RECAPITULATION
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An interview with the author can be read on BibliObs.com:
Alain Badiou is one of the most prominent French philosophers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, known for his commitment to leftist politics and his rigorous mathematical ontology. This work belongs to his ongoing Circumstances series, which applies his abstract philosophical framework to contemporary political events. By engaging with the Arab Spring and anti-austerity protests in Europe, Badiou positions his thought against the post-Cold War consensus of the 'end of history' popularized by Francis Fukuyama, arguing instead that collective action can still rupture the status quo.
Central to the book are Badiou's signature concepts of the 'event' and the 'communist Idea.' In his philosophy, an event is a radical, unpredictable disruption that opens up new possibilities for truth and subjective commitment, going beyond the limits of the established state structure. Here, the 'riot' serves as the physical manifestation of this potential. This volume is highly valuable for students and scholars of continental philosophy, political theory, and sociology, as well as anyone interested in the philosophical underpinnings of modern radical social movements and global resistance.