How can social sciences think through the constitutive disorder of a society? When groups marked by “bad reputation” refuse to be an object of knowledge, how can we write about them? This is the challenge presented to researchers by the Tubu of Chad.
Although today’s world is more interdependent than ever, it is still a jigsaw puzzle of sovereign states. One consequence of globalization is that we have to update our own mental maps, and to understand other people’s. In this interview, the diplomat and geographer Michel Foucher explains the world’s new geography.
Published in 2010, Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands is a magisterial rereading of the history of mass murder in Eastern Europe between 1933 and 1945, which has excited interest and controversy in Europe. In this interview, T. Snyder highlights the necessity to go beyond national boundaries in order to achieve “a decent and true understanding of the past”.
Since its publication in 2010 and its recent translation into French, Timothy Snyder’s book, Bloodlands, has attracted many comments from historians. Jacques Sémelin provides an overview of the recent criticisms leveled at the book, and the debates it fostered.
