Catalog All books
Robert Darnton
Berlin Journal, 1989-90
Robert Darnton was in Germany at the moment when the boundaries of post-war Europe came toppling down. Suddenly, the university professor discovered that History was in the making, and the masses were in motion. This is his personal account of the combined drama and celebration that accompanies every revolution. A professor at Princeton University in the United States, Robert Darnton is a specialist in the history of European culture. He is the author of L'Aventure de l'Encyclopédie, Le Grand Massacre des chats and Edition et Sédition.
Michel Jouvet
The Castle of Dreams
Here is a novel written in the manner of the 18th century, intertwining fiction and science, meditation and reverie. M. Jouvet, a specialist in the neurobiology of dreams and a member of the Académie des Sciences, borrows the creative pen and documented dreams of Hughes la Scève, forgotten father of the science of sleep.
Uta Frith
Autism: Explaining the Enigma
Why do certain children live walled in by silence, cut off from the world and others? For the first time, this book offers a general theory on autism, a profound disorder in cognitive development rather than one resulting from family conflict or an attention deficit. Uta Frith is a psychologist and member of a cognitive development study group at the Medical Research Council of Cambridge.
Norbert Rouland
The Confines of the Law
How did law come about? How do different societies answer to the same need for justice? N. Rouland invites us to explore the many aspects of law. Through various societies, a constant question emerges: can Africans, Asians and Westerners all adhere to the same norms? Norbert Rouland is a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille-III, where he teaches judicial anthropology and the history of law.
Harlan Lane
When the Mind Hears A History of the Deaf
This historical work recounts the struggle of deaf-mutes against prejudice, so that their rights and their language, sign language, were recognised. The people figuring in this book run from the abbey de l'Épée to Laurent Clerc, the spokesman for this community in the United States. A linguist, psychologist, and specialist in sign language, Harlan Lane teaches in Boston. He is the author of The Wild Child of Aveyron, which inspired the famous film by François Truffaut.
Diana Pinto
Between Two Worlds
How can the individual s identity solidify in today s multicultural context? D. Pinto's essay in comparative cultural history, written in the first person, is a sensitive and critical document in favor of an open Europe and a pluralistic society.
Jean-François Bensahel
France and Threatened Sovereignty
What may one hope for from a united Europe? What will be the future of France? Discouraging of both European illusions and those myths of the 1980s, the money-king and the triumphant individual, this work provides an indispensable reflection on how to tackle the difficult years ahead, to avert the explosive risks that weigh heavily on society and restrict the actions of the French State. Jean-François Bensahel, an ex-student of L'Ecole Normale Superior and the Ecole de Mines, holds a graduate degree in mathematics and is a high-level functionary.
Édouard Chevardnadzé
The Future is Freedom
Why did the former Soviet Union allow itself to be led to the emancipation of the peoples of Central Europe? Why would it accept the reunification of Germany? How did it find the pathway to alliance with the United States? Under what conditions will it be able to master economic crisis and political instability? A lucid look at what is becoming of our world, by one of the authors of change in the East, the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the former Soviet Union.
Thierry Breton
The Invisible Dimension The Challenge of Time and Information
The explosion of modern methods of handling information has changed our world. Already space and matter count less then the capacity to control the flux of information. "Intelligence" triumphs, a new source of growth and profit. At a crossroads of science, economy and political and cultural thought, this work is a journey to the heart of the great technological dream of this fin-de-siècle and the society of information that is currently being constructed. Thierry Breton is the author of Softwar, Vatican III and Netwar, works of technological and geopolitical fiction that have been translated in twenty countries.
Pierre-Jean Rémy
The Other Sentimental Education
A life recounted through various forms: masterworks and music pieces, pictures and images, the pens of writers, the voices of friends, the steady rhythm of the seasons, an everlasting love. A heart-warming novel by P.-J. Rémy, diplomat and member of the French Academy.
Jean Hamburger
Beautiful Imprudences
"Man has broken all the commandments to which living beings are bound. We had the audacity to want the weak to be protected. We gave rights to the individual. We decreased the rate of infant mortality and doubled the rate of life expectancy. But can we avoid the punishments of these beautiful imprudences?" Jean Hamburger Jean Hamburger was at the forefront of modern necrology and the principals of medical resuscitation. A member of the Académie Française and the Académie de Médecine, he was also President of the Académie des Sciences.