Catalog All books
Georges Charpak
Children, Researchers and Citizens
Georges Charpak has taken the initiative for a complete reform of our methods of science teaching. He proposes a teaching method based on creativity and problem-solving, instead of the old theoretical, book-based approach. This book recounts the experiences of two teams of French educators in a research institution created by Leon Lederman in Chicago, and the lessons which we can take from their experiences. Pollens shows that to learn is to discover, and that it is in discovering that one learns. Georges Charpak is a Nobel laureate in physics, and the author of La vie à fil tendu and Feux follets et champignons nucléaires, both published by Editions Odile Jacob.
Alain Ehrenberg
Tired of Yourself Depression and Society
Examining the changes that have occurred since the 19th century in both psychiatry and society at large, this book shows how the internal collapse that is depression is the ultimate symbol of our culture of powerlessness. The depressed person cannot rise above the demands imposed on him or that he imposes on himself. He has no recourse but fatigue, inhibition, and indecision. But what does it mean to learn to be oneself? Is our society merely creating huge numbers of hypochondriacs? Can we any longer draw a line between the small unhappinesses and frustrations of daily life, and pathological suffering? Alain Ehrenberg is a sociologist.
Émile Biasini
Africa and Us
Economist Charles Gide once described colonization as "a force of nature." Biasini believes that to imagine that our current phase of decolonization actually is an end to colonialism is just another manifestation of our society's megalomania. Africa today is going through a phase of change. It must stay faithful to its roots, digesting all the various cultures which have influenced it, while facing a new colonial menace. Its own elites, once fled abroad, have returned to Africa and are quickly becoming the colonists of their own countries. And such colonial ambitions, history teaches us, must inevitably lead to imperialism. Emile Biasini was a civil servant in colonial Africa. Under De Gaulle, he helped found the Ministry of Culture.
Christian Delacampagne
Of Indifference An Essay on the Banalization of Good and Evil
What can we forget, and what had we best remember? What is "good" and what is "bad" indifference? Christian Delacampagne proposes a re-evaluation of genocide and of crimes against humanity in the face of an intellectual confusion that leads, according to Hannah Arendt, to a real "banalization of evil." Christian Delacampagne is a philosopher and a journalist at Le Monde.
Maurice Rheims
crise mine
A well-known writer, art collector, academic, and sometime auctioneer reflects on life in our times and on the art of living well. In an age when it has become fashionable to lament a kind of society-wide depression, Rheims examines other periods of crisis and general malaise throughout history, and ends with a resounding affirmation of the power that curiosity, beauty, and art will continue to hold. Maurice Rheims is president of the Fondation de France's cultural development fund, and a member of the Académie française. He is the author of many essays, novels, and books on art.
Jean-François Deniau
The Office of Lost Secrets
La Rochefoucauld once wrote that "neither the sun nor death can be stared at. " The French moralist could have added that truth also can be blinding. Deniau examines several particularly spectacular cases throughout history and under a variety of political regimes, where leaders in the upper echelons of civil and military power have refused to face the truth. He studies major cases in the fields of espionage and international relations, proposing new interpretations of some of these cases, including of the Dreyfus affair. Jean-François Deniau is the author of numerous best-sellers, and a member of the Académie Française.
Antoine Alaméda
The 7 Domestic Sins
Based on clinical studies and his own long practice in the field, in this book Alameda shows how each family suffering from psychological problems can become its own best therapist, once it relearns to use the resources paralysed by history and modern culture. Far from being general, guilt-mongering, or infantilizing, Alameda's book concretely examines the seven situations that, today, are the most common reasons for seeking family therapy. Antoine Alameda is director at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic at the Hospital of Toulon-la-Seyne.
Uri Savir
The Process 1,100 Days that changed the Middle East
In The 1100 Days, Savir offers the reader a front-row view of the complex negotiations and the clash of interests between the opposing delegations. The author, who played a major role in the negotiations - along with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres - recounts the saga of one of the most significant political events of the late twentieth century. Numerous questions are still to be answered: How can the process of negotiation begun in Oslo be completed? What hopes are there for a peaceful solution? Uri Savir was secretary general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1996. He now heads the Peres Institute for Peace.
Jacques Testard
Eve, or the Clone ?
It's 2016 in Paris. Not much has changed, except that, now, a huge protective wall separates privileged neighborhoods from the surrounding slums, which are crowded which those of inferior genes. A member of the National Committee for Genetic Evaluation, young Eve observes the world around her without much soul-searching. That is, until the day when a series of strange e-mail messages turn her life upside down. Before his death, her father had discovered how to clone human beings. Has he tried out his discovery on his very own daughter? Part scientific fable, part story of love and suspense, Testart brings up ethical questions posed by the possibility of human cloning. Father of the first French test-tube baby, Jacques Testart is director of the in vitro fertilization laboratory at the Antoine-Béclère Hospital.
Harald Fritzsch
E=mc2 A Formula which Changes the World
An imagined account of a meeting between Einstein and Newton, described as a dream. It provides the occasion for a fascinating discussion between two scientific geniuses and a most effective way to be introduced to the mysteries of physics by those who have themselves revolutionised the field. Professor of physics at the University of Munich, Harald Fritzsch is also an associate professor at the CERN of Geneva, and at the California Institute of Technology of Pasadena, in California.
