History and Geopolitics All books
Bernard Lewis
Faith and Power Religion and Politics in the Middle East
One of the greatest experts on the Middle East revisits the great question of Islam and its clash with the West
Lauric Henneton
The End of the American Dream?
A book that helps understand the history of the United States and American society today.
Jean-François Muracciole , Lucie Muracciole
The True Novel of the Free French People Another way of reading and understanding history
A gallery of portraits of the men who decided to join the Resistance and follow de Gaulle, who at the time was completely unknown. Fictional history and Great History come together to weave a surprising tale of the Resistance.
Philippe Ratte
De Gaulle and the Republic
A decisive speech for the history of France. A history lesson from an exceptional moment of founding and reform. An analysis of the founding of the Fifth Republic. A close look at what Gaullism was.
Alain Boureau
Satan, the Heretic History of demonology in Medieval Europe, 1260-1350
Alain Boureau is one of the most original French medievalists. In his earlier, best-selling book on the droit du seigneur, he showed that such a custom had never actually existed. The present work is not about Satan and Satanism, but about the birth of demonology, i.e. about the demons that inhabit Satan's Court - a fascinating topic for a medievalist. Before the end of the thirteenth century, theology had shown little interest in demons, according to Boureau. But Saint Thomas Aquinas' Treatise on Evil, written in 1272, changed all this. Boureau tries to find an explanation. He is not concerned with why people believe in demons - he has not written a social history of demonology. Instead, he sets out to understand why theologians became interested in the subject - for this is a history of theological ideas about demons. The author summarises his explanation as follows: I propose that the date of the invention of demonology be moved forward by more than a century, not because a new doctrine was established and enforced then, as was the case in the fifteenth century, but because of the considerable procedural changes that assimilated witchcraft and invocations of the devil with the crime of heresy, which in turn led to new legal developments and more revelations. In addition, the injection of doctrinal content into the ancient theme of the devil's pact explained demoniac activity in the world. The issue that lies at the heart of these discussions about a pact with the devil, evil and evidence is obviously the emergence of our legal system. Alain Boureau is a director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
