The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century

Tony Judt. The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1999. 196 pages. $17.50. ISBN 026-41418-3.

In Past Imperfect (1992) Tony Judt criticized French intellectuals and political leaders during the twentieth century for their lack of integrity. Perhaps unwilling to remain on such a negative note, Judt has now chosen three leading figures who lived in accordance with their principles. The three men, of differing generations, retained a sense of intellectual responsibility, rather than abandoning judgment to a collective or political allegiance. One of the salient features in the work of all three is a firm determination to combat the dangers of communism and fascism.

Leon Blum was a leader of the Socialist Party between the wars, and the head of the Popular Front government in 1936 that began essential social reforms in France but could...