French Literature Reviews - 2026
É. Balibar, Histoire interminable. D'un siècle l'autre. Écrits I
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Histoire interminable
D'un siècle l'autre. Écrits I
Étienne BALIBAR
La Découverte, 2020
Series: L'horizon des possibles
Publication date: February 2020
ISBN: 9782348055171
Number of pages: 308
Digital ISBN: 9782348058516
This volume—the first of six collections comprising this series of Writings by Étienne Balibar—brings together essays and interventionist texts of a historical, philosophical, and political nature, some of which are published here for the first time, written between 1995 and 2019. They share a common goal: to shed light on the transition from one century to the next and to confront the question of the "end of history." This is done in reference, on the one hand, to the culmination of capitalist globalization and, on the other, to the disruption of our biological and planetary environment, which reached a point of no return at the end of the 20th century while remaining partly undetermined in its social and civilizational consequences.
From this perspective, we must learn to think philosophically about the gap between "past futures" and "contingent necessities," not in a purely speculative manner, but by combining memory and analysis in a uniquely singular way: by identifying decisive event-based traces that shape our institution of politics (the "Great War," the October Revolution, the May '68 uprising); by describing essentially contested borders between East and West, North and South, within our common Mediterranean space (France-Algeria, Israel-Palestine); and by conjecturing the forms and objectives of a strategic governmentality that must simultaneously address major institutional planetary regulations and bank on the capacity for invention and rupture inherent in local insurrections.
A politics after politics, one that may still answer to the names of democracy, socialism, and internationalism.
View the book on the publisher's website…
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An article on this work can be read on en-attendant-nadeau.fr:
"Balibar, heir of heirs", by Marc Lebiez (online March 10, 2020)
One of the pleasures afforded by Étienne Balibar, who is publishing two volumes of his texts with Histoire interminable and Passions du concept, is seeing how a powerful thought can fertilize the meditation of heirs who are themselves capable of their own powerful thought. There is no need to quote or hint at the origin of a given theme for a certain turn of mind to be recognizable. For example, the Pascalian preference opposed to the temptation of metaphysics.
The transition between centuries is a recurring theme in contemporary political philosophy, often framed by the tension between global economic integration and environmental instability. Histoire interminable: D'un siècle l'autre. Écrits I, published in 2020, collects essays and interventionist texts by Étienne Balibar written between 1995 and 2019. These texts examine historical events such as the October Revolution or the May 1968 uprisings to interrogate the concept of the end of history and the challenges of governance in an era of shifting borders.
This volume gathers writings that explore the intersection of memory and political analysis, focusing on the Mediterranean as a site of contested boundaries. The texts examine the relationship between capitalist globalization and the biological environment, discussing a form of strategic governmentality that addresses institutional regulations and the potential for local rupture. Readers interested in the evolution of political thought and the philosophical implications of historical continuity may find these reflections on the nature of modern statehood and civilizational change relevant.