Jean Birnbaum

This forum, which is broadcast on France Culture, is also the subject of a special issue of Monde des livres and of proceedings in the Folio collection of Gallimard.

Birnbaum had authored several essays, notably two on political inheritance among generations: Leur jeunesse et la nôtre : l’espérance révolutionnaire au fil des générations ("Their youth and ours: revolutionary hope among generations") and Les Maoccidents : un néoconservatisme à la française ("The Maoccidents: a French neoconservatism").

He furthermore published the last interview of Jacques Derrida, Apprendre à vivre enfin (translated into English as "Learning to Live Finally") in 2005.

In 2016, Birnbaum published Un silence religieux ; La gauche face au djihadisme ("A religious silence : the Left facing jihadism") where he supported the notion that Left-wing frames of interpretation have so far lost contact with religion that it hinders understanding of jihadism, notably that of the Islamic State.

[1] The Left would accordingly refuse to recognise a religious nature to jihadism and insist on explaining its use of terrorism by "social misery".».