Sons of Sartre

In his memoirs, Eric Hobsbawm, the 90-year-old British historian, recalls how serious young men and women of his generation would learn French and flock to Paris to be at the cutting edge of global debate, led and shaped by France’s famed intellectuals.

Nowadays, those serious young men and women speak English and visit the US instead. According to Hobsbawm, France has been reduced from an intellectual superpower to a hexagonal ghetto.

(…) conversations with Andre Glucksmann, Bernard-Henri Levy, Nicolas Baverez and Edgar Morin – four of France’s most provocative thinkers – yield insights on the state of France, the environment, the defence of human rights and military interventionism.

John Thornhill, editor of the FT’s European edition, reports.