{"product_id":"a-political-life-1937-1985-hardback-9781509565665","title":"A Political Life: 1937 - 1985 (Hardback) 9781509565665","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eA Political Life: 1937 - 1985\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAlain Badiou (Author), Robin Mackay (Translated by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781509565665, Polity Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 28 November 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e304 pages\u003cbr\u003e23.4 x 16 x 3.6 cm, 0.567 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Badiou is a unique figure in contemporary philosophy: a true genius who built a complex system of ontology at the level of the greatest classics from Plato to Hegel, but at the same time his work is deeply rooted in a continuous Communist engagement. How can these two dimensions coexist? The answer is provided by \u003ci\u003eA Political Life\u003c\/i\u003e, an autobiography which demonstrates how one can live and become engaged as a philosopher.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSlavoj Zizek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"While broken down into dates, this memoir offers readers not a life meted out in the coffee spoons of chronology, but a robust theory of the subject. In it, Badiou reviews his own life through the prism of the truth procedures - science, love, politics and art - he developed in theory. At this historical moment his life-long insistence on regarding truth as a procedure could not be more needed and admired.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoan Copjec, Brown University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Stimulating... Students of political thought and French intellectual history will find much to savor in this rewarding and approachable volume.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Political Life: 1937-1985\u003c\/i\u003e is one of Badiou's most personal books and can help one appreciate how he came to the ideas found in his later books.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMarx \u0026amp; Philosophy Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book, the renowned philosopher and polymath Alain Badiou tells the story of the first five decades of his life, from 1937 to 1985, setting it within the political history of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBorn in Morocco on the eve of catastrophic conflict, Badiou's childhood and youth were marked by the Second World War and the Algerian War, experiences that would shape his political consciousness. Badiou honed his political convictions as an activist and organizer among students and workers and in solidarity with the Algerian independence movement, but his life was upended and transformed by May '68 in ways that were profoundly consequential for his philosophical thought. By weaving his philosophical ideas into the narrative of his life, we see how the concepts for which Badiou is well-known – such as subject, being, event and truth – operate in the domain of experience and history.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWritten in an engaging and often playful style, this book illuminates both the unique trajectory of a major philosopher and the turbulent history of the twentieth century, showing how the latter shaped the thinking of a man who has come to embody the very idea of political commitment and radical political thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eI. 1937–1971: From Zero to Thirty Years Old or, From My 'Colonial' Birth to the Evental Cut Represented by May 1968\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Birth, Childhood, and World War (1937–1947)\u003cbr\u003e1a. 1937\u003cbr\u003e1b. Morocco\u003cbr\u003e1c. Bellerive-sur-Allier and Pétain\u003cbr\u003e1d. Toulouse and the Occupation\u003cbr\u003e1e. Toulouse and Liberation\u003cbr\u003e1f. Toulouse and My First Newspaper\u003cbr\u003e1g. Autobiographies and Proper Names\u003cbr\u003e1h. Sex and History: The Burghers of Calais\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. The Paradise of the Lycée (1947–1955)\u003cbr\u003e2a. Toulouse, Transitions: Lycée Bellevue\u003cbr\u003e2b. Toulouse, Toward the End: The First Glimmers of Politics\u003cbr\u003e2c. Honours Received\u003cbr\u003e2d. A Meditation on the Year 1954\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. Failures and Successes (1955–1956)\u003cbr\u003e3a. Into Action!\u003cbr\u003e3b. Historical Invariants, from Poujade to the Gilets Jaunes\u003cbr\u003e3c. I Preside and Fail; I Compete and Succeed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4. I Become a Socialist (1956–1958)\u003cbr\u003e4a. Budding Politicians at the ENS\u003cbr\u003e4b. Lessons from History: The Category of the 'Groupuscule'\u003cbr\u003e4c. The Manoeuvrings of the 'Socialist' Party\u003cbr\u003e4d. An Obscure Decision?\u003cbr\u003e4e. In the Name of the Father: Adhesion, Structuring, Action\u003cbr\u003e4f. A Subjective Defect: The Oppositional Mentality\u003cbr\u003e4g. Was There Any Point to All of This?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5. 13 May 1958 and its Effects (1958–1961)\u003cbr\u003e5a. Coup d'État and Scission: The PSA\u003cbr\u003e5b. Riots in Budapest, Revolution in Havana\u003cbr\u003e5c. Splits and Fusions: from the PSA to the PSU\u003cbr\u003e5d. 1960–1961 Again: Terray, Verstraeten, Me…and Sartre\u003cbr\u003e5e. The Belgian Dimension of My Political Life: Beginnings\u003cbr\u003e5f. Heroes and Martyrs of Our Vision: Castro, Lumumba\u003cbr\u003e5g. The Workers: A Free Inquiry\u003cbr\u003e5h. The Jeanson Network and Clandestinity: The Temptation of the Sublime\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6. An Overtly Military Music\u003cbr\u003e6a. Manifesto of the 121\u003cbr\u003e6b. A Handful of Generals on Stage\u003cbr\u003e6c. My France and its Army\u003cbr\u003e6d. A Political Lesson, an Academic Ruse, a Music Exam\u003cbr\u003e6e. An Experience of Mass Alliance: The Army as Seen from Below\u003cbr\u003e6f. The Missile Crisis: The Nuclear War Will Not Take Place\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e7. A Career of Note in the Champagne Region? (1963–1968)\u003cbr\u003e7a. The Reims Boys' Lycée as Seen Through a Teacher's Eyes\u003cbr\u003e7b. 'Leftist' Social Democracy—A Stubborn Myth\u003cbr\u003e7c. A Provincial Temptation á la Balzac\u003cbr\u003e7d. A Trip: Bolivia, for Che Guevara's Tomb\u003cbr\u003e7e. Who Was I in the Spring of 1968?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eII. 1968–1985: From Thirty to Forty-Four Years of Age, or, from a Flamboyant Maoism to the Veiled Beginnings of the Ideological and Statist Counter-Revolution\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8. 'Le Joli Mai' (1968–1970)\u003cbr\u003e8a. Event and Subjectivation Seen from Close Quarters\u003cbr\u003e8b. Two Years that Devastated a Subject: 1969–1970\u003cbr\u003e8c. Provincial Self-sufficiency?\u003cbr\u003e8d. An Anticipation of Maoism: The Sino-Soviet Controversy\u003cbr\u003e8e. The Creation of Paris-VIII and My Uprooting\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9. The Early Red Years (1970–1985)\u003cbr\u003e9a. A Creature with a Very Precise Name: Group for the Foundation of the Union of French Communists (Marxist-Leninist)\u003cbr\u003e9b. An Organisation's First Steps\u003cbr\u003e9c. Two Convictions That Have Become Rare\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e10. Anarchic Journey into the Work of the UCFml (1970–1985)\u003cbr\u003e10a. The Factory as Political Site: Communist Worker Nuclei\u003cbr\u003e10b. On the Side of the People: The Popular Anti-Capitalist Committees\u003cbr\u003e10c. Maoist Politics in the Countryside\u003cbr\u003e10d. A Subjective Parenthesis on the Political Question of 'Identities'\u003cbr\u003e10e. University and Youth: Problems of Recruitment\u003cbr\u003e10f. The Maoist Pole\u003cbr\u003e10g. Political Consistency of the International Proletariat of France: The Great Organised Struggle of the Sonacotra Hostels (1975–1979)\u003cbr\u003e10h. Le Marxiste-Léniniste, a Proud Publication\u003cbr\u003e10i. State of the UCFml in the Early 1980s\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e11. Endgame for the UCFml (1981–1985)\u003cbr\u003e11a. What Was it that Started in the 1980s\u003cbr\u003e11b. What did I Begin Again in the 1980s?\u003cbr\u003e11c. The Ideologues of the Counter-revolution and their 'New Philosophy'\u003cbr\u003e11d. The Capitalist Media, and Our One Hundred and Forty-Five Newspapers\u003cbr\u003e11e. Creation and Development of the Fortnightly Le Perroquet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProvisional Conclusion for the Present Day\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eSubject Areas: Philosophy [\u003ca title=\"See our other books on Philosophy\" href=\"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/search?q=%22Philosophy%20%5BHP%5D%22\"\u003eHP\u003c\/a\u003e]\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Polity","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52460684771608,"sku":"9781509565665","price":19.28,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/2037\/5320\/files\/9781509565665.jpg?v=1785458179","url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/a-political-life-1937-1985-hardback-9781509565665","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}