Books&Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007. Access to both websites is entirely free of charge, and so are the subscriptions to our newsletters.
Books&Ideas publishes essays, reviews, and interviews on a weekly basis. It emphasizes pluri- and trans-disciplinarity, and embraces all political and social sciences, with one central concern: offering short, highly readable, and unpublished pieces of outstanding scholarship to the general public. Making academic production a regular part of public life is hence our main challenge. To do this, we rely on a network of correspondents who are based in Europe, Russia, the Americas, as well as in Asia.
Books&Ideas provides free quality information about current intellectual life and international publications by drawing on the enhanced accessibility and the responsiveness offered by the internet. Books&Ideas works as an infinite library, relating the articles to each other. Video interviews and thematic dossiers offer a wide range of perspectives on important current issues.
Books&Ideas is directed by Pierre Rosanvallon and is part of the Institut du Monde Contemporain (Collège de France).