Slate's Bizbox
recycled: Previously published Slate articles made new.

Jean-Paul SartrePhilosopher, celebrity, apologist for totalitarianism.


Posted Tuesday, June 21, 2005, at 11:58 AM ET
Happy birthday, angst-master! Click image to expand.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Jean-Paul Sartre's birth. France is celebrating the philosophe's birthday with a series of tributes and events, though his popularity has waned since his death in 1980, perhaps because of his reputation as an apologist for totalitarianism. In 2003, Jim Holt assessed Sartre's achievements and embarrassments, from founding existentialism and declining the Nobel Prize in literature to excusing the purges of Stalin and Mao. Holt described him as the Last Intellectual: "There will never again be a combination of totalizing theoretician, literary colossus, and political engagé like Sartre."

Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Photograph courtesy FRILET/SIPA.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Over the Line
Harold Ford Jr. | I know what it's like to be smeared by your opponent.
: The Positive in Negative Ads
PLUS » Milbank: The President's Lullaby