San Francisco Public Library

Albert Camus and the human crisis, Robert Emmet Meagher

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-214) and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Albert Camus and the human crisis

bibliography

1236259774

Robert Emmet Meagher

"As France--and all of the world--was emerging from the depths of World War II, Camus summed up what he saw as 'the human crisis'. 'We gasp for air among people who believe they are absolutely right, whether it be in their machines or their ideas. And for all who cannot live without dialogue and the friendship of other human beings, this silence is the end of the world.' In the years after he wrote these words, until his death fourteen years later, Camus labored to address this crisis, arguing for dialogue, understanding, clarity, and truth. When he sailed to New York, in March 1946--for his first and only visit to the United States--he found an ebullient nation celebrating victory. Camus warned against the common postwar complacency that took false comfort in the fact that Hitler was dead and the Third Reich had fallen. Yes, the serpentine beast was dead, but 'we know perfectly well,' he argued, 'that the venom is not gone, that each of us carries it in our own hearts.' All around him in the postwar world, Camus saw disheartening evidence of a global community revealing a heightened indifference to a number of societal ills. It is the same indifference to human suffering that we see all around, and within ourselves, today"--, Provided by publisher

The human crisis -- Mortality -- Happiness -- The zero point -- Prison -- Toothing-stones -- Plague -- Rats -- Revolution -- Revolution -- Rebellion -- Limits -- Hell -- Judgment -- Friendship -- Conclusion