1
of
1
The Need for Roots
Prelude to a Declaration of Obligations towards the Human Being
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 1,248 ratings, 181 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3200
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Need for Roots
$3200
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
A new translation of Simone Weil's best-known work—a political, philosophical, and spiritual treatise on what human life could be.
An icon of twentieth-century French philosophy, Simone Weil was described by Andre Gide as 'the patron saint of all outsiders' and by Albert Camus as 'the only great spirit of our time'. In this, one of her last and best-known works, she offers a vision of what human life could be—where the needs of our bodies are met and the needs of the soul, too, are better known and nurtured.
Written in 1943, when France was occupied and Weil was working in the offices of the Free France in London, The Need for Roots responds to a plea both timely and timeless—what can satisfy the cry of our hearts for justice? In the same decade that saw the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Weil argues that rights alone are inadequate to the task—and encourages her contemporaries not to repeat the mistakes of the French Revolution and the malaise of modern life. The alternative she offers has intrigued and inspired generations of readers since.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
A masterpiece that remains eerily prescient, Simone Weil's The Need for Roots addresses future generations with profound insight into history's complexities. Celebrated as one of the most important works of a unique and controversial genius, it suggests that resistance to fascism requires a political renewal grounded in spiritual practice. Praised for its clarity and readability in recent translations, the book is recommended for study by the young to shape future mindsets, hailed by luminaries like André Gide and Albert Camus.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780241467978
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 26 October 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Contributors:
- Translated by Ros Schwartz
- Introduction by Kate Kirkpatrick
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 11.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 217g
Pages: 288
About the Author
Simone Weil (Author) Simone Weil (1909-43) was a French political activist, mystic and a singular figure in French philosophy. She studied at the elite cole Normale Superieure, obtained her agregation (teaching diploma) in philosophy in 1931, worked at Renault from 1934 to 1935, enlisted in the International Brigades in 1936 and worked as a farm labourer in 1941. She left France in 1942 for New York and then London, where she worked for General de Gaulle's Free French movement. Most of her works, published posthumously, consist of some notebooks and a collection of religious essays. They include, in English, Waiting for God (1951), Gravity and Grace (1952), The Need for Roots (1952), Notebooks (two volumes, 1956), Oppression and Liberty (1958) and Selected Essays, 1934-1943 (1962). Kate Kirkpatrick (Introducer) Kate Kirkpatrick is Fellow in Philosophy at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford. She is the author of several books and articles on twentieth-century French philosophy, including Sartre on Sin- Between Being and Nothingness (Oxford University Press, 2017), Sartre and Theology (Bloomsbury, 2017), and the internationally acclaimed biography of Simone de Beauvoir, Becoming Beauvoir- A Life (Bloomsbury, 2019).
Also by Simone Weil
View all-
Simone Weil: An Anthology
This collection captures the essence of a remarkable woman, one of the foremost thinkers of our century. Simone Weil was one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century—a philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist and political activist. This anthology spans the wide range of her thought and includes an extract from her best-known work The Need for Roots, exploring the ways...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Power of Words
There are certain words which possess, in themselves, when properly used, a virtue which illumines and lifts up towards the good. In these selected writings by Simone Weil—philosopher, activist, mystic—she explores the influence of language employed by the powerful, an individual's rights and responsibilities, and foods of the soul such as liberty, truth, security, and equality. Provocative, eloquent, and deeply...Paperback$2100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Life in Letters
The inspiring letters of philosopher, mystic, and freedom fighter Simone Weil to her family, presented for the first time in English. Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909–1943) lived largely in the shadows, searching for her spiritual home while bearing witness to the violence that devastated Europe twice in her brief lifetime. The letters she wrote to...Hardback$7599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Gravity and Grace
Simone Weil, the French philosopher, political activist, and religious mystic, was little known when she died young in 1943. Four years later, the philosopher-farmer Gustave Thibon compiled La pesanteur et la grace from the notebooks she left in his keeping. In 1952, this English translation accelerated the fame and influence of Simone Weil. The striking aphorisms in Gravity and Grace...Paperback$7275Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Venice Saved
Towards the end of her life, the French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil (1909-43) was working on a tragedy, Venice Saved. Appearing here in English for the first time, this play explores the realisation of Weil’s own thoughts on tragedy. A figure of affliction, a central theme in Weil's religious metaphysics, the central character offers a unique insight into Weil’s...Paperback$3199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Gravity and Grace
Gravity and Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker and activist, Simone Weil. In it, Gustave Thibon, the farmer to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death, compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance and wisdom for countless individuals. On the fiftieth anniversary...Hardback$22400Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Need for Roots
Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1942 she fled France along with her family, going firstly to America. She then moved back to London in order to work with de Gaulle. Published posthumously, The Need for Roots was a direct result of this collaboration....Hardback$22400Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Love in the Void
Love in the Void by Simone Weil explores the profound insights of a mystic and philosopher who continues to resonate with today's spiritual seekers. Weil's short and troubled life was characterised by her confounding insights into faith and doubt. What sets her apart? Is it her social radicalism, which led her to renounce privilege? Her ambivalence toward institutional religion? Or...PaperbackSold Out -
A Life in Letters
The inspiring letters of philosopher, mystic, and freedom fighter Simone Weil to her family, presented for the first time in English. Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909-1943) lived largely in the shadows. Assembled here, the letters she wrote to her parents and brother from childhood onward chart her intellectual range as well as her itinerancy and...PaperbackSold Out
More from History & Military
View all-
Saving Elli
One child. Two years in hiding. Three lives in mortal danger. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, near Anne Frank's house, another Jewish girl is hidden. Her name is Elli. Her father has been executed at Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother is fleeing for her life. Elli is next. To save her, resistance couple Frits and Jo Hakkens must risk everything, concealing her...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Spy and the Traitor
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...Paperback$2100Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Man's Search For Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a profound, thought-provoking memoir and psychological exploration that delves into the harrowing experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, intertwined with the author’s groundbreaking theories on existential psychology. The book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, offering a beacon of hope and a roadmap for finding purpose...Paperback$1800Elsewhere:$2100Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Betrayal
‘Tom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic storyteller and a master of intricacies.’ Sunday Times The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. At a landmark moment in royal history, can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the Royal family? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex...Paperback$3499Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Chief and the Empire
The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential Māori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the Pākehā world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Discipline
Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Shattered Lands
'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...Paperback$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Goliath’s Curse
Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Good Settler
‘Where once I saw a view as I drove around the Taranaki coast along State Highway 45, I now see confiscated land from an invasion road. The creation story I used to subscribe to, the one in which hard-working people came here and settled the land, now jars. Weirdly, even the lawn looks different. The form of things just won’t...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Banjara
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
This Way Up
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! In their long-awaited debut, YouTube’s Map Men bring their highly infectious enthusiasm for everything map-related to the printed page for the very first time, in a brilliantly entertaining and eye-catching tome. Packed with humour and fascinating facts, This Way Up takes a deep dive into the...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
