Raymond Aron

Raymond Aron was the foremost political and social theorist of post-World War Two France. Born in Paris in 1905 he studied at the Ecole Normale Superieur, where he met Jean-Paul Sartre, later to become a life-long friend and intellectual sparring partner. After the war he taught at the Sorbonne from 1955-1968, also maintaining a long commitment to journalism, first in Le Figaro then in L'Express. He was one of a handful of scholars to have two books appear on the Times Literary Supplement's 100...See more

Raymond Aron was the foremost political and social theorist of post-World War Two France. Born in Paris in 1905 he studied at the Ecole Normale Superieur, where he met Jean-Paul Sartre, later to become a life-long friend and intellectual sparring partner. After the war he taught at the Sorbonne from 1955-1968, also maintaining a long commitment to journalism, first in Le Figaro then in L'Express. He was one of a handful of scholars to have two books appear on the Times Literary Supplement's 100 Most Influential Books since World War II: The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955) and Memoirs (1983). He wrote many books, some of the best known being Main Currents of Sociological Thoughts (1967); Clausewitz: Philosopher of War (1976) and The Imperial Republic: The United States and the World 1945-1973 (1974). He died in Paris in 1983. See less