Sunday, May 07, 2006

Jean-Francois Revel Dies

One of the greatest thinkers of the latter stages of the Cold War has died. Jean-Francois Revel was 82. His Washington Post obituary is here, though it perhaps predictably fails to mention his perhaps most influential book, How Democracies Perish. It was required reading for any Cold Warrior in the 80s.

Revel gave lie to the assertion that there were no Frenchmen left to defend the West. On the other hand, given his demise, one would be hard-pressed to name another.