Politics and History

Raymond Aron, French scholar, journalist, philosopher, sociologist, and historian, is internationally recognized as one of the great thinkers in the modern social sciences, bringing to contemporary history the insights of both philosophy and social science. This edition focuses on Aron’s lifelong attempt to bridge the gap between knowledge and action and to understand the dialectical relationship between history and politics. It is an indispensable introduction to one of the most important thinkers of our century.

This volume also contains an introduction by Aron, which presents an autobiographical account of his confrontation with many of the most important ideas of this century. Miriam Bernheim Conant provides perceptive commentary as well as a chronology of Aron’s career and works.

Raymond Aron, French historian, sociologist, philosopher, and journalist, was internationally recognized as one of the great thinkers in the modern social sciences, bringing to contemporary history the insights of both philosophy and social science. This edition focuses on Aron's lifelong attempt to bridge the gap between knowledge and action and to understand the dialectical relationship between history and politics. It is an indispensable introduction to one of the most important thinkers of our century.

Raymond Aron (1905-1983) was the foremost political and social theorist of post-World War II France known for his skeptical analyses of leftist ideologies. was well known in both the United States and United Kingdom, serving as Andrew D. White Professor-At-Large at Cornell University. He also taught at Columbia and Oxford. He authored more than forty books, including Main Currents in Sociological Thought, The Opium of the Intellectuals,and The Imperial Republic, all published in new editions by Transaction.

Miriam Bernheim Conant is a professor of political science at Sarah Lawrence College. She has also taught public law and government at Columbia University Miriam Bernheim Conant is a professor of political science at Sarah Lawrence College. She has also taught public law and government at Columbia University