Mitchell Abidor

‘Almost Certain’

Did Félix Fénéon plant a bomb at the Restaurant Foyot?

What the Honest Capitalist Will Say

Give yourself, for starters, a capitalist honest enough to answer your questions and admit that he is driven to increase his fortune indefinitely, without pause and without respite. Ask him why he yields to this irresistible tendency. You will receive the following answers…

Reading Sade in the Age of Epstein

Reading Sade in the age of #MeToo and Jeffrey Epstein is an uncanny experience, for his novels are also a blueprint for the world of the sexual predators of today.

‘Les Temps Modernes’: End of an Epoch

Les Temps Modernes mattered because it dealt with grand issues in a world where change not only seemed possible but was thought to be imminent. Political and intellectual decisions had to be made, and the stakes felt high.

Victor Serge vs. Leftist Illusion

Victor Serge’s shift away from the stance of the revolutionary left grew sharper as World War II went on. The reality of this war, of this world, of the radical differences between 1917 and the 1940s, and Serge’s willingness to see these differences, forced him, unlike most of his comrades in exile, to completely revise his political vision.

1968: Paris in May

1968 was the definitive proof, if such were still needed, that the French Communist Party (PCF) had no interest in seizing power through revolution. But it also demonstrated that in this, the PCF was the perfect image of the class it represented, and vice versa.