The Will to See: Dispatches from a World of Misery and Hope

by Bernard-Henri Lévy

Overview

An unflinching look at the most urgent humanitarian crises around the globe, from one of the world’s most daring philosopher-reporters

“Call[s] on people not just to see the world, but to be moved and interested by what they find there, and to do something about it.”—Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic

“Fierce and elegant, Lévy’s musings will be of profound interest to any reader of modern continental philosophy.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Over the past fifty years, renowned public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy has reported extensively on human rights abuses around the world. This new book follows the intrepid Lévy into eight international hotspots—Nigeria; Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan; Ukraine; Somalia; Bangladesh; Lesbos, Greece; Libya; and Afghanistan—that have escaped global attention or active response.

In a deeply personal introduction, Lévy recounts the intellectual journey that led him to advocacy, arguing that a truly humanist philosophy must necessarily lead to action in defense of the most vulnerable. In the second section, he reports on the eight investigative trips he undertook just before or during the coronavirus pandemic, from the massacred Christian villages in Nigeria to a dangerously fragile Afghanistan on the eve of the Taliban talks, from an anti-Semitic ambush in Libya to the overrun refugee camp on the island of Lesbos. Part manifesto, part missives from the field, this new book is a stirring rebuke to indifference and an exhortation to level our gaze at those most hidden from us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300268102
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosopher, filmmaker, activist, and author of more than thirty books, including The Virus in the Age of Madness. He is widely regarded as one of the West’s most important public intellectuals.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 My Creed

1 The Archaeology of a Reflex 7

2 Man Is Not a Local Adventure 25

3 Into the Unknown 53

4 The Adventurer: A Self-Portrait 67

5 War and Peace 81

Part 2 On The Road

6 Nigeria's Christians Are under Siege! 93

7 Night of the Kurds 105

8 Donbass : Trench Warfare Lives on in Europe 116

9 The End of the World in Mogadishu 126

10 Return to Bangladesh 136

11 The Devil Made a Stop at Lesbos 146

12 Sorrow and Brotherhood in Libya 157

13 Massoud Lives! 170

Epilogue 181

Index 193

Editorial Reviews

Call[s] on people not just to see the world, but to be moved and interested by what they find there, and to do something about it.”—Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic

“The renowned French philosopher and activist delivers an intellectual biography-cum-manifesto that demands that we face and document the world’s horrors. . . . [Lévy] advocates for politically engaged journalism that does not pretend to objectivity. The writer, he insists, must make a stand in the face of genocide, fundamentalist intolerance, and other assaults on human rights and democracy.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Ever the interventionist, Lévy implores us to break free from the chains of apathy.”—James Kirchick, Air Mail

“This is a book born out of an extraordinary life, much of it spent plunging into the world’s most troubled and crucial places, a life committed to an internationalism that is not owned by the powerful, and to visions of France, Europe and liberty that can’t be understood by bureaucrats. A passionate, engaged book that combines philosophy, war reportage, and autobiography to explore the creation of a brilliant and brave mind.”—Salman Rushdie

From the Publisher

★ 2021-08-26
The renowned French philosopher and activist delivers an intellectual biography-cum-manifesto that demands that we face and document the world’s horrors.

“What leads me to throw myself once again into this mess or that inferno?” So ponders Lévy, fondly known in France as BHL and a familiar presence on TV and in the pages of newspapers in a country that takes big ideas and thinkers more seriously than the U.S. The author advocates for politically engaged journalism that does not pretend to objectivity. The writer, he insists, must make a stand in the face of genocide, fundamentalist intolerance, and other assaults on human rights and democracy. Unafraid to be controversial, Lévy demands a new internationalism, which he distinguishes from globalism, and a cosmopolitanism that must be reformed with nuance. “I would keep the word but only after making it sing with the voices of the excluded, those we now refer to, in today’s democracies, as migrants, immigrants, foreigners without and foreigners within.” The author is always willing to put his life where his mouth is. For example, in 1971, he was on the scene in Bangladesh as it struggled for independence, advocating then and at many points since a kind of International Brigade of fighters who, like those in the Spanish Civil War, would battle against fascism. Lévy is a suggestive and allusive writer. Next to such militant pronouncements, for instance, he employs classical literature to discuss two types of traveling: “The voyage of Ulysses, or that of Aeneas. The voyager who thinks of nothing but his return, or the one who is constantly departing.” As for today, Lévy scorns those who have abandoned travel because of the heavy carbon footprint it entails. We must go out to see the world, and we have to fight for it while making of our travels “a poetic adventure in which the stake is, by traveling through space, to exert opposition until time bends.”

Fierce and elegant, Lévy’s musings will be of profound interest to any reader of modern continental philosophy.

Kirkus Reviews