The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought

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Yves R. Simon edited by Anthony O. Simon translated by Robert Royal foreword by A. James McAdams “While it is true that Yves R. Simon did not intend this to be a history book, The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought is an important historical work well deserving of a close reading by students of twentieth-century European history and international relations. This book, which finds a worthy English translation after too many years, was Simon’s first serious foray into the public square on the side of justice and the common good. Simon’s analysis is wide-ranging, incisive, and brimming with far-sighted political acumen.” —Robert Ventresca, King’s University College “The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 led to the memorable plea of Emperor Haile Selassie before the League of Nations as his country’s freedom died. Easier to forget is that it also sparked a surprisingly familiar intellectual dispute over the legitimacy of the bombing and the relevance of international law, as depressingly many European intellectuals rallied behind Benito Mussolini’s campaign as a defense of the West and the cause of ‘civilization.’ The unsparing critique leveled against these frequently religious apologists for imperialism by Yves Simon, French Catholic thinker and later American university professor, is an eyeopening reminder of the terms of debate, and the larger constellation of forces of the turbulent era. Anthony Simon and his colleagues deserve thanks for making this precious and moving document available, since its ethical kernel, like its model of Catholic intellectualism, remain highly relevant.” —Samuel Moyn, Columbia University “The reader will immediately recognize that this book is not a conventional history of the causes and consequences of Italy’s assault on a distant people. Rather, for Simon, the event is a case study that allows him to formulate a moral critique. His target is the paucity of ideas and values that led a broad segment of the Catholic intelligentsia in France to shirk its responsibility to combat injustice.” —from the Foreword, A. James McAdams, University of Notre Dame YVES R. SIMON (1903–1961) was the author of twenty books and a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago. ANTHONY O. SIMON, director of the Yves. R. Simon Institute, is the author and editor of a number of books, including Acquaintance with the Absolute: The Philosophy of Yves R. Simon. University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, IN 46556 undpress.nd.edu The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought Yves R. Simon edited by Anthony O. Simon translated by Robert Royal The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought ...