Routledge Sartre and Clio: Encounters with History

In Nausea, the 1938 novel that made Sartre famous, the protagonist is a historian who abandons the biography he is writing because he comes to believe that all histories are fictional, escapist, and useless. He sought the one and only truth of history; a truth that would revolutionize the world. By the time Sartre published his most mature works, he claimed to have written a biography that was perfectly true. This book examines how and why Sartre's position on the possibility and worth of historical knowledge changed so dramatically. In addition, it illuminates Sartre's unique contribution to the grand debate between Marxist and anarchist revolutionaries-a debate that continues today. Review “Hulliung presents a particularly enlightening account of Sartre’s concern with problems afflicting groups that lack a history. The author draws his conclusions with care and subtlety. This book, which is refreshingly free of technical vocabulary, is accessible to a broad audience. Summing Up: Recommended.” ―CHOICE About the Author Mark Hulliung is the Richard Koret Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University. He has published widely on topics concerning intellectual, cultural, and political history, both European and American, including the interactions between America and Europe. He is a historian and a political theorist, and his work is interdisciplinary in nature, cutting especially across history, political science, and literary studies.