What did French intellectuals have to say about Gaullism, the Cold War colonialism, the women's movement, and the events of May '68? David Drake examines the political commitment of intellectuals in France from Sartre and Camus to Bernard-Henri Lévy and Bourdieu. In this accessible study, he explores why there was a radical reassessment of the intellectual's role in the mid 1970s-80s and how a new generation engaged with Islam, racism, the Balkan Wars and the strikes of 1995.

Acknowledgements Introduction Liberation, Épuration, Existentialism and Marxism The Onset of the Cold War From Kravchenko to Hungary via Korea Colonialism and Anticolonialism May, Mao and the End of the 'Classic Intellectual'? From 'The Silence of the Intellectuals' to the End of the Millennium Conclusion Index

DAVID DRAKE is Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University. He is the Secretary of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies and his articles and book reviews on French intellectuals (especially Sartre) and French politics and society have appeared in a number of publications including the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, the Financial Times, Sartre Studies International, Contemporary French Civilization, Journal of European Studies and Modern and Contemporary France.