The notion that all the world's peoples constitute a "brotherhood of man" is not a given among all human beings -- it is rather the product of history. So suggests acclaimed philosopher Alain Finkielkraut in "In the Name of Humanity, " an unsettling reflection on the twentieth century in its twilight hours in which he asks us to rethink our assumptions about universalism and humanism. While many people look to humanist ideals as a deterrent to nationalist chauvinism, Finkielkraut challenges the abstract idea of universalism by describing the terrible crimes "civilized" Europe has committed in its name.

At the same time as it challenges the inhumanity of our century's great universalistic solutions, "In the Name of Humanity" also confronts the more onerous elements of unreflective nationalism -- clearly condemning the dangerous use of claims for ethnic purity. However, the book does not put forth a standard-issue polemic against the multitude of nationalistic currents that continue to plague the international arena. Indeed, even as he deplores the violence that seems to go hand in hand with nationalism, Finkielkraut defends its underlying cause -- the need to belong. Eloquently quoting the experiences of refugees from Hitler's Germany, he shows the reader why we must heed the call of this irreducible need.

Finkielkraut reminds us that the concept of cultural relativism -- indeed, the very idea of tolerating other cultures -- is a relatively recent development in Western history. As he looks for answers he interrogates the differences between historical racism and the racism embedded in the philosophies of this century's genocidal movements, showing how modern racist ideologies like National Socialism look not to sin within the self as the stumbling block of human advancement but to a clandestine conspiracy by a particular, identifiable element of human society. What this form of radical racist thought eliminates is the notion of personal responsibility -- instead of finding the answers to misfortune within the self, modern racism suggests that evil can be identified in others and summarily eliminated.

Lucidly connected to the ideas of past thinkers, from Plato to Levinas to Hannah Arendt, Finkielkraut's latest work is a troubling indictment of our century that refuses to back away from the "messiness" of human life and culture. In his willingness to abjure simple solutions, he offers a glimmer of hope.

A passionate critique of Enlightenment--both in its contemporary invocation and its historical and cultural use--and a call to arms to rethink human equality and liberty without the sacrifice of individual rights and ethnicities.

Paradoxically, burning wishes to possess everything that may fulfill us and unreserved abnegation meet in the same word: love. In this work, the author reflects on both vast and contrasting meanings and helps us to understand loving relationships as well as feelings of hate against someone else.

In 1988, during what was probably one of the last trials of a Nazi war criminal - and the first of such trials to take place in France - Klaus Barbie, the notorious "Butcher of Lyons", was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. Yet despite the memories stirred and despite the verdict, to Alain Finkielkraut the trial was a moral failure. In Remembering in Vain: The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity, Finkielkraut maintains that the Barbie trial attests to the failure of international society to take responsibility for criminals of state. Trying Barbie not only for actions against Jews but also for actions against the Resistance - actions heretofore considered war crimes on which the statute of limitations had run out - the French court blurred the definition of crimes against humanity. Finkielkraut finds most disturbing how seriously the arguments of the defense were taken in media responses to the trial. Manipulating the guilty conscience of the West by concentrating on French colonial crimes of the post-World War II era, Barbie's lawyers became accusers, disputing the special significance of the Holocaust and portraying nearly everyone as guilty - except Barbie himself. Remembering in Vain is Finkielkraut's passionate reminder that the Holocaust struck a mortal blow against the very idea of human progress, a blow that the West and the Third World cannot afford to forget or ignore. A substantial introduction by Alice Kaplan situates the book for an American audience, providing background on Klaus Barbie, the trial, and the Resistance. A glossary of names and terms is included.

"The Future of a Negation" is a crucial statement on the Holocaust--and on Holocaust denial--from Alain Finkielkraut, one of the most acclaimed and influential intellectuals in contemporary Europe.
The book examines the Holocaust, its origins in modern European thought and politics, and recent "revisionist" attempts to deny its full dimensions and, in some cases, its very existence as historical fact. Finkielkraut's central topic is the impulse toward "negation" of the Nazi horrors: the arguments made by many people, of varying political orientations, that "the gas chambers are a hoax or, in any case, an unverifiable rumor." In addition, Finkielkraut looks at other instances of twentieth-century mass murder and at arguments made by contemporary politicians and intellectuals that similarly deny the full extent of these other atrocities. An original, fearless book, "The Future of a Negation" is an essential contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust and of genocidal politics and thought in our century.

The Holocaust changed what it means to be a Jew, for Jew and non-Jew alike. Much of the discussion about this new meaning is a storm of contradictions. In "The Imaginary Jew," Alain Finkielkraut describes with passion and acuity his own passage through that storm.

Finkielkraut decodes the shifts in anti-Semitism at the end of the Cold War, chronicles the impact of Israel's policies on European Jews, opposes arguments both for and against cultural assimilation, reopens questions about Marx and Judaism, and marks the loss of European Jewish culture through catastrophe, ignorance, and cliche. He notes that those who identified with Israel continued the erasure of European Judaism, forgetting the pangs and glories of Yiddish culture and the legacy of the Diaspora.