An Impatient Life: A Memoir

An Impatient Life: A Memoir

by Daniel Bensaïd (Author)

Synopsis

In the classic tradition of the philosopher - activist, Daniel Bensaid tells the story of a life deeply entwined with the history of both the French and the international Left. From his family bistro in a staunchly red neighborhood of Toulouse to the founding of the Jeunesses communistes revolutionnaires in the 1960s, from the joyous explosion of May 1968 to the painful experience of defeat in Latin America, from the re-reading of Marx to the Marrano trail, Bensaid relates a life of ideological and practical struggle in which he unflinchingly sought to understand capitalism without ever succumbing to its temptations.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 392
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 03 Mar 2015

ISBN 10: 1781688184
ISBN 13: 9781781688182

Media Reviews
France's leading Marxist public intellectual. - Tariq Ali Daniel's death is like a wound, not a sadness. A loss which leaves us heavier. However, this weight is the opposite of a burden; it is a message composed, not with words, but with decisions and acts and injuries. - John Berger Daniel Bensaid was my 'distant companion' ... With his disappearance, the intellectual, activist, political, and what we might call, even though the adjective is today obscure in meaning, 'revolutionary' world has changed. - Alain Badou His ideological fervour comes through in the memoir. Part autobiography, part activist's logbook, and part political treatise, it's the story of how a working-class boy went on to co-found a party that twice participated in French presidential elections, and became a leader of the Fourth International, the global organisation of Trotskyist followers. - Independent This absorbing, affecting memoir is a beautiful testament to a richly productive and dignified life...this is an energising book, a book that reminds us of the rightness of refusing the inevitability of capitalism and war, of the promise of international solidarity and socialism, of our responsibility to all those who have made sacrifices in this struggle. - Dougal McNeill, ISO Bensaid crafts each chapter with a painter's hand, stroke by stroke, offering us musings, vignettes, and reflections that are intricately argued, sometimes speculative, and always subtly insightful. - Alan Wald, International Socialist Review From love to Leninism, journalism to Jewishness, Bensaid always has something interesting and original to say. - Ken MacLeod An honest, and often moving, chronicle of a revolutionary life in unrevolutionary times. - Marc Mulholland, English Historical Review
Author Bio
DANIEL BENSAiD (1946 - 2010) was a founder member of the Ligue Communiste and a leader for many years of the Fourth International. His many books include Walter Benjamin, sentinelle messianique; Jeanne de guerre lasse; Eloge de la politique profane; and Marx for Our Times.