One of the great intellectuals of our time. Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard University This is a voice to be listened to attentively, for our sharedplanetary home's and all its residents' sake. Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds Now, of all times, there is a need for cool heads, such asTodorov, who approaches the limits of free speech with admirabledexterity. The New York Review of Books A coherent, relevant work in which intelligence and sincerehumanism do battle D a world away from the slippery moralizingof intellectual fence-sitters. Le Nouvel Observateur Todorov s work is that of a sage, a man who has read thegreat texts, who has lived through two political regimes, and whodares to express an idea that may seem at odds with his ferventdefence of freedom and democracy: freedom for its own sake, freedomthat forgets its duties and responsibilities, is self-destructive.What he writes is never ordinary, but always tolerant and lifeaffirming. L Echo