Aron is best known for his 1955 bookThe Opium of the Intellectuals, the title of which invertsKarl Marx's claim that religion was theopium of the people; he argues thatMarxism was the opium of theintellectuals in post-war France. In the book, Aron chastised French intellectuals for what he described as their harsh criticism ofcapitalism anddemocracy and their simultaneous defense of the actions of the communist governments of theEast. CriticRoger Kimball suggests thatOpium is "a seminal book of the twentieth century".[2] Aron is also known for his lifelong friendship, sometimes fractious, with philosopherJean-Paul Sartre.[3] The saying "Better be wrong with Sartre than right with Aron" became popular among French intellectuals.[4]
Considered by many as a voice of moderation in politics,[5] Aron had many disciples on both the political left and right; he remarked that he personally was "more of a left-wing Aronian than a right-wing one".[6] Aron wrote extensively on a wide range of other topics. Citing the breadth and quality of Aron's writings, historian James R. Garland suggests, "Though he may be little known in America, Raymond Aron arguably stood as the preeminent example of French intellectualism for much of the twentieth century."[7]
A lifelongjournalist, Aron in 1947 became an influentialcolumnist forLe Figaro,[11] a position he held for thirty years until he joinedL'Express, where he wrote a political column up to his death.
In Berlin, Aron witnessed the rise to power of theNazi Party and developed an aversion to all totalitarian systems. In 1938, he participated in theColloque Walter Lippmann in Paris. By the 1950s, he had grown very critical of theAustrian School and described their obsession with private property as an "inverted Marxism".[15] Aron always promoted an "immoderately moderate" form of liberalism which accepted a mixed economy as the normal economic model of the age.[16]
In the field ofinternational relations in the 1950s, Aron hypothesized that despite the advent ofnuclear weapons, nations would still require conventional military forces. The usefulness of such forces would be made necessary by what he called a "nuclear taboo."[18]
A prolific author, he "wrote several thousand editorials and several hundred academic articles, essays, and comments, as well as about forty books",[19] which include:
Aron, Raymond (1935).La Sociologie allemande contemporaine. Paris: Alcan. ; Translated to English asGerman Sociology. London: Heinemann. 1957.
Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire. Essai sur les limites de l'objectivité historique, Paris: Gallimard, 1938;[20]Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1948
Essai sur la théorie de l'histoire dans l'Allemagne contemporaine. La philosophie critique de l'histoire. Paris: Vrin. 1938.
L'Homme contre les tyrans. New York: Editions de la Maison française. 1944.
De l'armistice à l'insurrection nationale. Paris: Gallimard. 1945.
L'Âge des empires et l'Avenir de la France. Paris: Défense de la France. 1945.
Le Grand Schisme. Paris: Gallimard. 1948.
Les Guerres en Chaîne. Paris: Gallimard. 1951.;The Century of Total War. London: Derek Verschayle. 1954.
La Coexistence pacifique. Essai d'analyse, Paris: Editions Monde nouveau, 1953 (under the pseudonym François Houtisse, with Boris Souvarine)
L'Opium des intellectuels, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1955;The Opium of the Intellectuals, London: Secker & Warburg, 1957
Espoir et peur du siècle. Essais non partisans, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1957 (partially translated in,On War: atomic weapons & global diplomacy, London, Secker & Warburg, 1958)
L'Algérie et la République, Paris: Plon, 1958
La Société industrielle et la Guerre, suivi d'unTableau de la diplomatie mondiale en 1958, Paris: Plon, 1959
Immuable et changeante. De la IVe à la Ve République, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1959;France, Steadfast and Changing: The Fourth to the Fifth Republic, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1960.
Introduction. Classes et conflits de classes dans la société industrielle (Ralph Dahrendorf), Paris: Mouton Éditeur, 1959
Dimensions de la conscience historique, Paris: Plon, 1961
Paix et guerre entre les nations, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1962;Peace and War, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966
Le Grand Débat. Initiation à la stratégie atomique, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1963,The Great Debate, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965
Dix-huit leçons sur la société industrielle, Paris: Gallimard, 1963;Eighteen Lectures on Industrial Society, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967
La Lutte des classes, Paris: Gallimard, 1964
Essai sur les libertés, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1965
Démocratie et totalitarisme, Paris: Gallimard, 1965;Democracy and totalitarianism, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968
Trois essais sur l'âge industriel, Paris: Plon, 1966;The Industrial Society. Three Essays on Ideology and Development, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967
Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique, Paris: Gallimard, 1967;Main Currents in Sociological Thought, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965
De Gaulle, Israël et les Juifs, Paris:Plon, 1968;De Gaulle, Israel and the Jews, Praeger, 1969
La Révolution introuvable. Réflexions sur les événements de mai, Paris: Fayard, 1968
Les Désillusions du progrès, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1969;Progress and Disillusion: The Dialectics of Modern Society, Pall Mall Press, 1968
D'une sainte famille à l'autre. Essai sur le marxisme imaginaire, Paris: Gallimard, 1969
De la condition historique du sociologue, Paris: Gallimard, 1971
Études politiques, Paris: Gallimard, 1972
République impériale. Les États-unis dans le monde (1945–1972), Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1973;The Imperial Republic: The United States and the World 1945–1973, Little Brown & Company 1974
Histoire et dialectique de la violence, Paris: Gallimard, 1973;History and the Dialectic of Violence: Analysis of Sartre's Critique de la raison dialectique, Oxford: Blackwell, 1979
Penser la guerre, Clausewitz, Paris: Gallimard, 1976;Clausewitz: Philosopher of War, London: Routledge, 1983
Plaidoyer pour l'Europe décadente, Paris: Laffont, 1977;In Defense of Decadent Europe, South Bend IN: Regnery, 1977
with Andre Glucksman and Benny Levy. "Sartre's Errors: A Discussion".Telos 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press
Le Spectateur engagé, Paris: Julliard, 1981 (interviews)
Mémoires, Paris: Julliard, 1983
Les dernières années du siècle, Paris: Julliard, 1984
Ueber Deutschland und den Nationalsozialismus. Fruehe politische Schriften 1930–1939, Joachim Stark, ed. and pref., Opladen: Leske & Budrich, 1993
Le Marxisme de Marx, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2002
De Giscard à Mitterrand: 1977–1983 (editorials fromL'Express), with preface byJean-Claude Casanova, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2005
^Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection, Raymond Aron (1990).
^Poirier, Agnès (1 May 2018)."May '68: What Legacy?".The Paris Review. Retrieved30 December 2020.
^Rosenblatt, Helena; Geenens, Raf (2012).French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day. Cambridge University Press. pp. 271–291.
^Sawyer, Stephen W.; Stewart, Iain (2016).In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France Since 1950. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 25.
^abGarland, James R. "Raymond Aron and the Intellectuals: Arguments Supportive of Libertarianism."Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall 2007).
^Rosenblatt, Helena; Geenens, Raf (2012).French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day. Cambridge University Press. p. 223.
^Sawyer, Stephen W.; Stewart, Iain (2016).In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France Since 1950. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 22.
Anderson, Brian C.,Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political, Rowman & Littlefield, 1998
Colquhoun, Robert.Raymond Aron. Volume I:The Philosopher in History 1905–1955. Volume II:The Sociologist in Society 1955–1983. London: Sage, 1986.
Craiutu, Aurelian, "Raymond Aron and the tradition of political moderation in France",French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Gagliano, GiuseppeLa nuova sinistra Americana e il movimento del maggio francese nelle interpretazioni di Raymon Aron e Herbert Marcuse.Uniservice, 2011ISBN978-8861786608
Launay, Stephen,La Pensée politique de Raymond Aron, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995
Mahoney, Daniel and Bryan-Paul Frost (eds.),Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron, New Brunswick/London: Transaction Publishers, 2006
Molina, Jerónimo,Raymond Aron, realista político. Del maquiavelismo a la crítica de las religiones seculares, Madrid: Sequitur, 2013
Stark, Joachim, Das unvollendete Abenteuer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft und Politik im Werk Raymond Arons, Wuerzburg: Koenigshausen und Neumann, 1986
Stark, Joachim, Raymond Aron (1905–1983), inDirk Kaesler, Klassiker der Soziologie, Vol. II: Von Talcott Parsons bis Anthony Giddens, Munich: Beck, 5th ed., 2007, 105–129
Bavaj, Riccardo,Ideologierausch und Realitaetsblindheit. Raymond Arons Kritik am Intellektuellenfranzoesischen Typs, Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 5 (2008), No. 2, 332–338,
Oppermann, Matthias, Raymond Aron und Deutschland. Die Verteidigung der Freiheit und das Problem des Totalitarismus, Ostfildern: Thorbecke Verlag 2008.
Oppermann, Matthias (Ed.), Im Kampf gegen die modernen Tyranneien. Ein Raymond-Aron-Brevier, Zurich:NZZ Libro 2011.
Stark, Joachim, "Das unvollendete Abenteuer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft und Politik im Werk Raymond Arons", Wuerzburg: Koenigshausen und Neumann, 1986
Stark, Joachim, "Raymond Aron (1905–1983)", in Dirk Kaesler, Klassiker der Soziologie, Vol. II: Von Talcott Parsons bis Anthony Giddens, Munich: Beck, 5th ed., 2007, 105–129
Stewart, Iain,Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
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