Synopses & Reviews
In
Battling to the End Rene Girard engages Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the Prussian military theoretician who wrote
On War. Clausewitz, who has been critiqued by military strategists, political scientists, and philosophers, famously postulated that "War is the continuation of politics by other means." He also seemed to believe that governments could constrain war.
Clausewitz, a firsthand witness to the Napoleonic Wars, understood the nature of modern warfare. Far from controlling violence, politics follows in war’s wake: the means of war have become its ends.
Rene Girard shows us a Clausewitz who is a fascinated witness of history's acceleration. Haunted by the French-German conflict, Clausewitz clarifies more than anyone else the development that would ravage Europe. Battling to the End pushes aside the taboo that prevents us from seeing that the apocalypse has begun. Human violence is escaping our control; today it threatens the entire planet.
Translated by Mary Baker. Benoit Chantre is President of l'Association Recherches Mimetiques.
Review
"Fundamentalists, preoccupied with apocalypse, nevertheless grab the wrong end of the stick: 'They cannot do without a cruel God. Strangely, they do not see that the violence we ourselves are in the process of amassing and that is looming over our own heads is entirely sufficient to trigger the worst. They have no sense of humor.'
Girard insists that our desires are mimetic; envy and admiration fuel imitation and resentment — and eventually violence. We become our foes. In one of the sweeping, epigrammatic statements that pepper the book, Girard claims, 'Individualism is a formidable lie.'" Cynthia Haven, San Francisco Chronicle (read the entire )
Synopsis
Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the Prussian military theoretician who wrote On War, is known above all for his famous dictum: "War is the continuation of politics by other means." In Ren Girard's view, however, the strategist's treatise offers up a more disturbing truth to the reader willing to extrapolate from its most daring observations: with modern warfare comes the insanity of tit-for-tat escalation, which political institutions have lost their ability to contain. Having witnessed the Napoleonic Wars firsthand, Girard argues, Clausewitz intuited that unbridled "reciprocal action" could eventually lead foes to total mutual annihilation. Haunted by the Franco-German conflict that was to ravage Europe, in Girard's account Clausewitz is a prescient witness to the terrifying acceleration of history. Battling to the End issues a warning about the apocalyptic threats hanging over our planet and delivers an authoritative lesson on the mimetic laws of violence.
Synopsis
Based on discussions with Benoit Chantre.
Synopsis
In a fascinating analysis of critical themes in Feodor Dostoevsky’s work, René Girard explores the implications of the Russian author’s “underground,” a site of isolation, alienation, and resentment. Brilliantly translated, this book is a testament to Girard’s remarkable engagement with Dostoevsky’s work, through which he discusses numerous aspects of the human condition, including desire.
About the Author
Rene Girard is a member of the French Academy and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He is the recipient of the Modern Language Association's Lifetime Achievement Award (2008). His books have been translated widely: Deceit, Desire, and the Novel (1965); Violence and the Sacred (1977); The Scapegoat (1986); Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World (1987); A Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare (1991); I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (2001); Oedipus Unbound: Selected Writings on Rivalry and Desire (2004).
Table of Contents
CONTENTS:
- A Note on the Translation
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. The Escalation to Extremes
- Chapter 2. Clausewitz and Hegel
- Chapter 3. Duel and Reciprocity
- Chapter 4. The Duel and the Sacred
- Chapter 5. Hölderlin’s Sorrow
- Chapter 6. Clausewitz and Napoleon
- Chapter 7. France and Germany
- Chapter 8. The Pope and the Emperor
- Epilogue