Human Sciences All books
Yves Coppens
Memory of a Mammoth Science, past and present
The latest memoir by Yves Coppens. With 40 tastes of science and history. With 40 illustrations, maps and photos.
Annick Perrot, Maxime Schwartz
Pasteur et Koch A Duel Between Giants in the Microbial World
The tale of the rivalry between two great scientists engaged in the race to conquer infectious diseases, told against the historical backdrop of rising nationalism
Dominique Schnapper
Sociological Reflection on the Jewish Condition
Following the “days of suspicion” initiated in 1967 by the speech of General de Gaulle, which put an end to a form of accord between France and the State of Israel...
Annick Le Guérer, Bruno Fourn
Scents and Sound, an Unexpected Association
The mysterious voice-scent synaesthesis
François Dagognet
Reflections on the Body
A philosophy for our times, devised through an understanding of modernity in all its forms: artistic, scientific and medical. This work is a rigorous and exacting treatment of the ethical and political choices facing mankind at a moment when the power over matter and living are coming to be declared unlimited. In short, the engaged and stimulating observations of François Dagognet, a professor of philosophy at the Université de Paris I, medical doctor, and heir worthy of Bachelard.
Antoine Garapon, Sylvie Perdriolle, Boris Bernabé
Prudence and Authority The Judge’s Role in the 21st Century
The new role of French judges, according to a report that will be submitted to the government in January 2014
Jean Guilaine, Chantal Alibert
Paul Tournal, The Inventor Of Prehistory
A clear and accessible account of the obstacles endured by the inventor of prehistory, in particular in overcoming disbelief in the existence of fossilised human remains.
Juan Luis Arsuaga
The Neanderthal Necklace Our Ancestors of the Ice Age
The conflict between Neanderthal man and Homo Sapiens during the European Ice Age is told here by Juan Luis Arsuaga, one of Europes most eminent pre-historians. Why did the stronger, better adapted Neanderthal become extinct, while our ancestors flourished? How can this critical phase in human development be explained? The tragic story of the extinction of this species so like and yet unlike our own can help us to understand our human strengths and assets. It would seem that we are here because Neanderthal man is dead... Juan Luis Arsuaga is a professor of palaeontology at the University of Madrid and a lecturer at University College London.
Yves Michaud, Valérie Julien Grésin
Digital Mutation, and the Human Responsibility of Leaders
This book responds to a need being expressed increasingly within corporations to find the tools for reflection and discernment.
Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee
The Second Machine Age Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will alter how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress.
Hervé Le Bras
Essay on Social Geometry
Hervé Le Bras examines here how post-modern mathematics, targeting concrete issues, can help us to address a fundamental concern of all human societies, i.e., how space is occupied. Among many topics he examines pastoral nomadism, agricultural sedentariness, territorial conquest, migrations, ancient and modern urban planning, national and regional development, and road traffic. Hervé Le Bras is a demographer and course director at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
Daniel Sibony
The Issue of Being
What is Being? An Exchange Between the Bible and Philosophy, Heidegger and the God of Moses
Jacques Hochmann
Degeneration Theories Psychiatry and History
The unbelievable story of a mad psychiatric theory centered on the idea of heredity which was put to the most horrible of uses, while having a lasting effect on mentalities.
Yves Coppens
Origins of Man: Origins of a Man Memoirs
Richly illustrated, the memoirs of a great paleontologist, a man of exceptional breadth and an indefatigable story-teller, world-renowned prehistorian, and award-winning French scientist. The story of a life dedicated entirely to studying, explaining, reconstituting, understanding, telling about, and conveying the history of human beings, and the mystery of our origins.
Marcel Otte
The Metamorphoses of Humans
A light shed by prehistory on the profound nature of humans, their relationship to the natural world, their appetite for conquest, but also their passion for challenges and their inventiveness.
Olivier Artus, Sophie Ramond
Contemporary Challenges and the Hebrew Bible An Ethics of Good and Evil
A text that combines history, biblical science, philosophy and ethics, for an original reflection on society’s current challenges in terms of justice, ecology and human dignity.
Jean Chavaillon
The Golden Age of Humanity Annals of the Palaeolithic Age
If myths tell the story of civilizations without writing, the myth of the golden age corresponds to a very precise period in the story of mankind: the superior paleololithic (between 35,000 and 9,000 B.C.). Even though different species of hominides coexisted in the same territories of Africa, there were no wars. Human groups were rare, they lived in an environment of abundance. They had time. Without art or religion, their life was carefree. All their knowledge was concentrated on the making of tools and in the mastering of fire. This is the everyday life of men from the Paleolithic which Jean Chavaillon describes in this fascinating book, illustrated by black and white reproductions. Jean Chavaillon, is a research director at the CNRS, a specialist in prehistory and a field worker.
The Dalaï-lama, Thubten Chödrön
Buddhism One Teacher, Many Traditions
The diverse expressions of the Buddha's teachings
Jean Guilaine
Humanity’s Second Birth The Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution, a major turning point in the history of humanity
David Evans, Richard Schmalensee
The New Middlemen How Airbnb, BlaBlaCar, Uber and the rest are changing the economy
“Stimulating and rigorous, everyone — students, entrepreneurs and all those who just want to understand how our economy is evolving — should read this book.” Jean Tirole. The book masterfully articulates a strategic analysis of economic theory, making it far easier to grasp.
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
Philippe Desan
Montaigne Thinking about the Social
A study destined to become a work of reference, one that will be required for all courses on Montaigne.
François Lévêque
Imperfect Competition
A very wide diversity of examples taken from all sectors. Very educational, well written, and easy to understand, this book is also an economics lesson for Dummies.
Philippe Moati
The Future of Large-Scale Distribution
Few phenomena have changed our urban centres as much as the birth of large-scale distribution: our towns ans cities have been transformed, as have our methods of purchasing, and even our places of social interaction have moved. This is perhaps only the beginning. In this book, Philippe Moati reviews the development of large-scale distribution during the three decades of prosperity that followed World War II and the economic crisis that succeeded them. He analyses the problems encountered by large-scale distribution today and examines the development strategies that are currently being put into practice and the revolutions which are perhaps to come. Philippe Moati teaches economics at the University of Paris-VII and is a director of research at CREDOC.
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.