The Need for Roots

Name: The Need for Roots
Brand: Penguin Books Ltd
SKU: 9780241467978
Price: 32.0 NZD
Availability: OutOfStock

Prelude to a Declaration of Obligations towards the Human Being

By Simone Weil

4.02

( 1,008 ratings, 138 reviews)

Summary

The Need for Roots by Simone Weil is a profound exploration of the social, political, and spiritual crises of Western society. Weil discusses the necessity of re-establishing a sense of cultural and moral roots for individuals and communities to flourish. This philosophical work delves into the importance of connections and obligations in human life.
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Format: Paperback / softback

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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?

You might enjoy this book if you are interested in exploring philosophical and spiritual reflections on society, culture, and the human need for belonging and connection. It offers deep insights into the nature of community, justice, and the importance of maintaining cultural roots.

The Need for Roots

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

Collections

History & Military Non-Fiction Philosophy & Psychology Philosophy & Stoicism Simone Weil

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).