Books

De Gaulle, Israel, and the Jews

– Raymond Aron, De Gaulle, Israel, and the Jews, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2004.  
Aron’s collected writings on De Gaulle, Israel, and the Jews. Features Aron’s unforgettable analysis of De Gaulle’s (infamous) criticism of Jews following Israel’s success in the 1967 War.     From the publisher: Description… More

Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection

– Raymond Aron, Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1995.
Aron’s memoirs are an indispensable document  of 20th century political history. Describes his studies in Germany before the war, his relations with Jean-Paul Sartre, his growing disillusionment with pure philosophy and his discovery of political… More

The Century of Total War

– Raymond Aron, The Century of Total War, London: Praeger Press, 1954.
From a review in Foreign Affairs: Though writing in the first instance as a Frenchman to Frenchmen, M. Aron’s very thoughtful and incisive analysis is of universal interest. Seeing the world in the midst of a chain reaction of wars, he seeks some way of… More

On War

– Raymond Aron, On War, New York: W.W. Norton, 1968.
This provocative volume re-examines and analyzes a problem that has plagued mankind from the beginning of history through the present atomic age. The author promotes his belief in a minimum program to limit aggression by means of conventional arms and by… More

The Opium of the Intellectuals

– Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectuals, introduction Harvey C. Mansfield, New York, N.Y.: Norton, 1962.
Aron’s classic work explains the attraction of intellectuals (particularly French and European) to the totalitarian movements of the 20th century, whether leftist or fascist.  One of the most lucid political analyses of the 20th century, Aron uses his… More

Democracy and Totalitarianism

– Raymond Aron, Democracy and Totalitarianism, New York: Praeger, 1968.
Aron’s great theory of the way of government and “constitutional” pretensions of Totalitarian systems.

Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations

– Raymond Aron, Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1973.
From the publisher: Peace and War by Raymond Aron is one of the greatest books ever written on international relations. Aron’s starting point is the state of nature that exists between nations, a condition that differs essentially from the civil state that… More

Essays

Marxism in the Modern World

– Volume citation: Marxism in the Modern World, Hoover Institution: Palo Alto, 1965.
Aron has an essay on Marxism in this volume on Marxism in the Cold War era.

The Politics of Human Rights

– "The Politics of Human Rights," In Power and Policy in Quest of Law : Essays in Honor of Eugene Victor Rostow, p. 229-245.

Thinking Politically: A Liberal in the Age of Ideology

– Thinking Politically: A Liberal in the Age of Ideology,  New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.
From the publisher: Thinking Politically brings together a series of remarkable interviews with Raymond Aron that form a political history of our time. Ranging over an entire lifetime, from his youthful experience with the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in… More

Democratic States and Totalitarian States (June 1939)

– "Democratic States and Totalitarian States (June 1939)," Salmagundi, n65 (Fall 1984): 27-39.
From the editorial note: On June 17, 1939 Raymond Aron read a paper before the French Philosophical Society on “Democratic States and Totalitarian States.” A summary had prepared the way for the paper which was followed by a discussion. Raymond Aron… More

Alternation in Government in the Industrialized Countries

– "Alternation in Government in the Industrialized Countries,"  Government and Opposition, v17 n1 (1982): 3-21.
Excerpt: ” I must confess that I did not choose the subject of this article out of theoretical or scientific interest. My dreams have not been peopled by the merits of replacing one team by another in government. It was Françoise Mitterand’s… More

For Progress, after the Fall of the Idols

– "For Progress, after the Fall of the Idols," Chicago Review, v32 n3 (Winter, 1981): 108-118.
Excerpt: Marx is not dead; in secondary schools, and colleges, even in the universities, he remains very much alive, and inexhaustible mine of quotations, of concepts and dogmas, and almost inevitable reference if not an undisputed authority. In England,… More
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