The thirteen chapters of the book are presented as lessons derived from a seminar Badiou gave at the College International de Philosophie between 1998-2001.

[1] Badiou conceives of the century as a duration and concentrates upon the "short century" of 75 years, beginning with the wars of 1914-18 (including the Russian Revolution of 1917) and closing with the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

"[2] He suggests the political project enacting that tragedy is driven by profit motives, as well as "criminals as anonymous as joint-stock companies.

"[3] Badiou considers the century as conceived in Osip Mandelstam's poem The Age (1923) which depicts the wounded body of a beast.

The degree to which the century can be considered as living recalls the vitalism of Henri Bergson, and Badiou contrasts it to Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the will to power and the Übermensch.