French Literature Reviews - 2026

C. Bouton, Making History: From the French Revolution to the Arab Spring
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Making History: From the French Revolution to the Arab Spring
Christophe Bouton

PUBLICATION DATE: 09/05/13 PUBLISHER: Cerf COLLECTION: Passages ISBN: 978-2-204-10070-0 EAN: 9782204100700 FORMAT: Paperback NO. OF PAGES: 259 p.

Do humans make history? Can history be controlled? Who are the "subjects" supposedly "making" it? Great men, the vanguard, the people, the masses? What is the level of awareness among historical actors? Following a century marked by unprecedented mass crimes, has the ambition to make history proven to be a dangerous project, subservient to totalitarian regimes? Christophe Bouton revisits the origins of the thesis of the "feasibility" of history, weighing the debates it has sparked for and against.

Through an analysis that draws on philosophers, historians, and novelists across a period stretching primarily from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring, he highlights—as a counterpoint to an overly elitist view of history—the irreducible role of anonymous individuals in major collective events. By developing a theory of historical responsibility grounded in the democratization of history, which branches out into an ethics of memory (combating the forgetting of mass crimes), an ethics of democracy (actively participating in the defense of this regime), and an ethics of nature (preserving the Earth as the foundation of all future history), the author rehabilitates the role of human beings as agents of their own history.

Table of Contents:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CATEGORY OF THE "FEASIBILITY" OF HISTORY
POWERLESSNESS
IGNORANCE
VIOLENCE
HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILITY

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An article on this book can be read on the website laviedesidees.fr:

"What is History Made Of?", by F. Hulak.

"Are we responsible for our history, of which we are the actors, or are we powerless in the face of events, of which we are the playthings? As Christophe Bouton demonstrates, this question has continually been debated. It explains many of the contradictions running through our contemporary societies."

The philosophical inquiry into whether human beings can consciously direct historical events has occupied thinkers across various intellectual traditions, particularly since the Enlightenment and the upheavals of the French Revolution. Discussions surrounding the concept of historical feasibility often balance determinism against voluntarism, examining how societies conceptualize progress, collective action, and political agency. Christophe Bouton revisits the origins of the thesis of the "feasibility" of history, weighing the debates it has sparked for and against. Following a century marked by unprecedented mass crimes, the text questions whether the ambition to make history has proven to be a dangerous project, subservient to totalitarian regimes.

Drawing on philosophers, historians, and novelists across a period stretching primarily from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring, the work highlights the irreducible role of anonymous individuals in major collective events. By developing a theory of historical responsibility grounded in the democratization of history, which branches out into an ethics of memory, an ethics of democracy, and an ethics of nature, the author rehabilitates the role of human beings as agents of their own history. Readers interested in contemporary philosophy, the philosophy of history, and political ethics may find this volume relevant.