Commentary

Lavenir de la Guerre dans le Monde du Commerce: Raymond Aron Face aux Philosophies

– Benjamin Brice, "Lavenir de la guerre dans le monde du commerce: Raymond Aron face aux philosophies." Institut québécois des hautes études internationales Ɂrudit, 2012.
Abstract: The West, and especially Europe, often understands globalization as a new process that will eventually challenge the domination of traditional politics. This paper will attempt to question the idea of a gradual disappearance of war in human affairs,… More

A Once and Future Greatness: Raymond Aron, Charles de Gaulle and the Politics of Grandeur

– Reed Davis, "A Once and Future Greatness: Raymond Aron, Charles de Gaulle and the Politics of Granduer,"  International History Review, v33 n1 (2011): 27-41.
Abstract: Charles de Gaulle devoted his life to cultivating French grandeur, a politics that attempted to carve out an equal and independent role for France among the great powers of the world. One who frequently criticized de Gaulle’s ideas of grandeur… More

Reed M. Davis, A Politics of Understanding: The International Thought of Raymond Aron

– Bryan-Paul Frost, "Reed Davis, A Politics of Understanding: The International Thought of Raymond Aron," Bryan-Paul Frost Society, v47 n6: 554-556.
Excerpt: For an international theorist whose work was largely written during, as well as in the context of, the Cold War, one might charitably described the bulk of Raymond Aron’s enormous corpus as “dated.” Of course, historians of international… More

An Uncertain Trumpet: Reason, Anarchy and Cold War Diplomacy in the Thought of Raymond Aron

– Reed Davis, "An Uncertain Trumpet: Reason, Anarchy and Cold War Diplomacy in the Thought of Raymond Aron," Review of International Studies, v34 n4 (Oct., 2008): 645-668.
Abstract: Near the end of his career, Raymond Aron explained that he had never ceased to ‘think or dream or hope – in the light of the idea of Reason – for a humanized society’, a hope that extended to the conduct of international affairs as well. The… More

Raymond Aron: Too Realistic to Be a Realist?

– Pierre Hassner, "Raymond Aron: Too Realistic to Be a Realist?" Constellations, 14, no. 4 (2007): 498-505.
Excerpt: Was Raymond Aron a realist? Certainly the answer is obvious if one understands realism in the nonacademic sense of analyzing situations accurately, of not pursuing utopian goals with an adequate means, of acting with prudence and moderation but… More

Better Late than Never: Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations and its Prospects

– Bryan-Paul Frost, "Better Late than Never: Raymond Aron's Theory of International Relations and its Prospects," Sage Public Administration Abstracts, 34, no. 3 (2007).
Abstract: Although students of Raymond Aron’s Peace and War might rightly bemoan the fact that this book has had relatively little impact on Anglo-American scholarship, the question arises as to whether Aron has anything significant to teach us today.… More

Raymond Aron on the End of the History of International Relations

– Bryan-Paul Frost, "Raymond Aron on the End of the History of International Relations," Perspectives on Political Science, v35 n2 (Spring 2006): 75-82.
Excerpt: “The advent of a new millennium invites us to speculate on what might be called “the really big questions,” and perhaps the biggest such question for the discipline of international relations is whether the history of international… More

Raymond Aron on the Use of Force by Pierre Hassner

– Hassner, Pierre. “Raymond Aron on the Use of Force and Legitimacy.” Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Center on the United States and Europe, 2005.
Excerpt: Raymond Aron, beyond his rich theories and deep analyses, remains for me above all a professor of moral and intellectual sanity. He was a teacher of what he saw as the 2 supreme intellectual principles: the respect for facts and the respect for the… More

Introduction: Raymond Aron and the Persistence of the Political

– Daniel J. Mahoney, "Introduction: Raymond Aron and the Persistence of the Political," Perspectives on Political Science, v35 n2 (2004): 73-74.
Excerpt: The bitter experience of the 20th century, with its hyperbolic wars, totalitarian ideologies, and the erosion of spiritual meaning and collective purpose in the Western world, ought to have forever shattered the fast file progressivism of modern… More

Rayond Aron: Political Liberalism Civic Passion, and Impartial Judgment

– Nicolas Baverez; Pierre Manent, "Rayond Aron: Political Liberalism Civic Passion, and Impartial Judgment," Society, 41, no. 3 (2004): 17-20.
Excerpt: “Even if he did not live to see the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union,  Aron largely summed up the history of the 20th century. One must recall that he was born in 1905 and died in 1983. A graduate of the prestigious… More

The Phenomenology of Raymond Aron

– Reed Davis "The Phenomenology of Raymond Aron,"  European Journal of Political Theory, v2 n4 (2003): 401-413.
Abstract: This article reviews the influence of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology on Raymond Aron’s philosophy of history. In trying to create an original synthesis of Husserl’s phenomenology and Max Weber’s neo-Kantianism, Aron fashioned… More

Aron, Marx, and Marxism: An Interpretation

– Daniel J. Mahoney, "Aron, Marx, and Marxism: An Interpretation," European Journal of Political Theory, 2, no. 4 (2003): 415-427.
Abstract: Central to his own fruitful study of modern society and politics, of the stakes and twists-and-turns of the dramatic twentieth century, was Raymond Aron’s fifty year engagement with `Marx and Marxism’. In a series of lecture courses (and… More

Raymond Aron The Dawn of Universal History

– Daniel J. Mahoney, "Raymond Aron The Dawn of Universal History," The New Criterion,  v21, Part 2 (2002): 62-64.
Excerpt: The short twentieth century, beginning with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in July 1914 and culminating in the collapse of communist totalitarianism in the annus mirabilis 1989, is now behind us even if its… More

Raymond Aron and the Morality of Prudence A Reconsideration

– Daniel J. Mahoney, Raymond Aron and the Morality of Prudence A Reconsideration, Modern Age, 43, Part 3 (2001): 243-252.
Excerpt: No major intellectual figure of the 20th century displayed a better political judgments than the French political philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron. He was right about the essential questions of his time and his judgments were invariably… More

Resurrecting a Neglected Theorist: The Philosophical Foundations of Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations

– Bryan-Paul Frost, "Resurrecting a Neglected Theorist: The Philosophical Foundations of Raymond Aron's Theory of International Relations," Review of International Studies, v23 n2 (Apr., 1997): 143-166.
Abstract: Raymond Aron is a neglected theorist, at least if we understand by ‘neglected’ a theorist whose theory no longer engenders critical scholarly debate. More often than not, students of international politics either ignore Aron altogether or… More

The Recovery of the Political by Brian Anderson

– Anderson, Brian C. Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997.
From the publisher: This concise and penetrating analysis introduces students to the life and thought of one of the giants of twentieth- century French intellectual life. Portraying Raymond Aron as a great defender of reason, moderation, and political… More

Raymond Aron’s Peace and War, Thirty Years Later

– Bryan-Paul Frost, "Raymond Aron's Peace and War, Thirty Years Later," International Journal, v51 n2 (Spring, 1996): 339-361.
Excerpt: “In 1966, Raymond Aron’s peace and war: a theory of international relations 1st appeared in English. On like the almost universal acclaim it’s received in France 5 years earlier, its North American debut met with mixed reviews.… More

The Tocquevillian Liberalism and Political Sociology Of Raymond Aron

– Stuart L. Campbell, "The Tocquevillian Liberalism and Political Sociology Of Raymond Aron,"  The Historian, v53 n2 (1992): 303-316.
Excerpt: “At the time of his death in October 1983, Raymond Aron was frequently referred to as the 20th century’s Alexis de Tocqueville, France’s renowned historian who lived from 18 052-1859. The tendency to link these 2 thinkers arose out… More

Aron’s Politic Liberal Rationalism by Daniel Mahoney

– Mahoney, Daniel J. “The Politic Liberal Rationalism of Raymond Aron.” Polity 24, no. 4 (Summer 1992): 693–708.
Excerpt: “At the time of his death in 1983, Raymond Aron had finally achieved a level of public recognition and even celebration that had eluded him to ring most of his adult and professional life. Aron, to be sure, was well known in France as a… More

The Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron

– Daniel J. Mahoney, The Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron, Rowman and Littlefield, 1991.
Reviews: Mahoney’s book is the best to date about the great French political thinker — Pierre Manent The finest philosophical treatise on the political science of Raymond Aron available. (The New England Reviews Of Books)

Raymond Aron: The Making of a Cold Warrior

– Stuart L. Campbell, "Raymond Aron: The Making of a Cold Warrior," The Historian, v51 n4 (1989): 551-573.
Excerpt: During the years following World War II, Raymond Aron emerged as France’s leading a thinker willing to challenge the leftist political attitudes that dominated the French intellectual community. Unlike John Paul Sartre, for example, who… More

The Four Paretos of Raymond Aron

– Stuart L Campbell, "The Four Paretos of Raymond Aron," Journal of the History of Ideas, 47, (1986), 287-298.
Excerpt: This article originated in a November 1982 conversation with Raymond Aron. Our discussion, largely concerned with Erin’s political convictions during the interwar period, eventually focused upon the differences separating his prewar and post… More

Raymond Aron / Vol. 1, The Philosopher in History, 1905-1955.

– Robert Colquhoun, Raymond Aron / Vol. 1, The Philosopher in History, 1905-1955, Beverly Hills, Calif.:  Sage Publications, 1986.
From the publisher: The only book on Raymond Aron in English, Robert Colquhoun’s brilliant biography is an intellectual and literary tour de force. The first volume, The Philosopher in History, 1905-55, is examines the development of his… More

Raymond Aron / Vol. 2. The Sociologist in Society, 1955-1983.

– Robert Colquhoun,  Raymond Aron / Vol. 2. The Sociologist in Society, 1955-1983.  London: Sage 1986.
From the publisher: Volume Two of Robert Colquhoun’s biography of Raymond Aron takes us through his years as Professor of Sociology at the Sorbonne — including his opposition to the Algerian War and the events of May 1968 — in which he… More

The Last of the Liberals by Allan Bloom

– Bloom, Allan. “Raymond Aron: The Last of the Liberals.” Quadrant 30, no. 4 (April 1986): 22–26.
Excerpt: “A few weeks ago, when I was in Paris, I went to have lunch at my friend Jean-Claude Casanova’s home. As I entered the great doors of the building on the Boulevard St. Michel, I had one of those experiences which only an American amateur of… More

Aron and International Relations by Stanley Hoffmann

– Hoffmann, Stanley. “Raymond Aron and the Theory of International Relations.” International Studies Quarterly 29, no. 1 (March 1985): 13–27.
Excerpt: The scope of Raymond Aron’s work has always caused his commentators and his disciples to despair. Many unpublished works will probably be released in the near future. However, Aron’s death makes it possible to study in depth, at last, his… More

Raymond Aron and the History of the Twentieth Century

– Pierre Hassner, "Raymond Aron and the History of the Twentieth Century," International Studies Quarterly, v29 n1 (Mar., 1985): 29-37.
Excerpt: Raymond Aron would undoubtedly have wished that those who render him homage speak with a critical mind rather than sentimentally or from their remembrances. He would have wanted them to analyze his work as much as himself as a person. But no one… More

Raymond Aron: Between Theory and History in the Field of International Relations

– Giovanni Busino, "Raymond Aron: Between Theory and History in the Field of International Relations," International Studies Quarterly, (1985) 29, 13-27.
Excerpt: The scope of Raymond Aron’s work has always caused his commentators and his disciples to despair. Many unpublished works will probably be released in the near future. However, Erin’s death makes it possible to study in depth, at last, his… More

Raymond Aron as Political Theorist

– Melvin Richter, "Raymond Aron as Political Theorist," Political Theory, v12 n2 (May, 1984): 147-151.
Excerpt: Raymond Aaron developed a style of political theory unique not only in France but elsewhere. He combined the capacity and the will to investigate in depth the major political problems of his day and then to make clear their theoretical meaning as… More

European Liberty: Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Leszek Kolakowski, Marguerite Yourcenar

– Pierre Manent, European Liberty: Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Leszek Kolakowski, Marguerite Yourcenar, The Hague: Nijhoff, 1983.
Excerpt: Among the features that might characterize the 20th century—the one which begins in 1914—at least 3 are indisputable: in the political field, wars and revolutions which seem to defy all reason by the discrepancy between the mediocrity of man and… More

History and Choices: The Foundations of the Political Thought of Raymond Aron

– Tracy B. Strong, "History and Choices: The Foundations of the Political Thought of Raymond Aron," History and Theory, v11 n2 (1972): 179-192.
Excerpt: ” At first approach, the English or American intellectual, who by his upbringing is generally not conscious of the conflict of political ideologies, may tend to view Raymond Aron as a colorless figure. Thus, for David Thompson, Erin’s… More